Artificially intelligent sex robots that have personalities and can form relationships with humans - similar to those depicted in HBO series Westworld - could soon be a reality.
Abyss Creations, the company behind the "RealDoll" sexbot, which has made headlines due to its lifelike appearance and "fully functional" genitalia , has released an app called Harmony AI, which it claims gives its silicone creation a "brain".
The app uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to remember key facts about the user and create "a strong simulation for a relationship or friendship", according to Abyss subsidiary Realbotix.
Users can use the app to tailor their RealDoll's personality, selecting from 18 personality traits to control how happy, shy, sensual, funny, jealous, moody or talkative it is.
Once the sex robot's personality has been set up, the user can interact with it using voice alone.
The app uses algorithms to dictate the overall mood of the sexbot - so if you are kind, and offer it compliments its desire level will increase, but if you insult it and say unkind things its desire level will decrease.
Over time the RealDoll will become more attached and connected to the user until, eventually, "a full simulation of being in love" can be attained, according to Realbotix.
"Many of our clients rely on their imaginations to a great degree to impose imagined personalities on their dolls," the company's chief executive Matt McMullen told Digital Trends earlier this year.
"With the Harmony AI, they will be able to actually create these personalities instead of having to imagine them.
"They will be able to talk to their dolls, and the AI will learn about them over time through these interactions, thus creating an alternative form of relationship.
"The scope of conversations possible with the AI is quite diverse, and not limited to sexual subject matter."
The Harmony AI app, which is available as a yearly subscription for $20 (£16), can be downloaded now from the Realbotix website. Due to Apple restrictions, it's currently available only for Android users.
The app can also be used to create a fully customisable 3D avatar of your sexbot - with countless options for body shape and size, skin colour and features - edit and change its voice, and choose its clothes, hair, and make up.
Realbotix claims the AI will eventually be built into robotic heads that can be placed onto RealDoll bodies. The heads alone are expected to cost the best part of $10,000 (about £8,000).
While it seems only female robots are currently being developed, McMullen claims the app's foundation is genderless.
Once "the male version of the app is complete, subscribers will be able to easily choose different genders when creating their AIs," he told the publication Future of Sex in February.
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Abyss's Harmony love dolls will go head-to-head with Samantha , the artificially intelligent sex doll developed by Barcelona-based engineer Sergi Santos.
Samantha has the ability to create emotional closeness and progress through different modes, from "romantic" to "family" to "sexy", according to Santos.
The doll also responds to being touched in different areas of its body - including hands, hips, breasts and G-spot. "The final objective of the sexual mode is to get her to get orgasm," said Santos.