Source: AFP
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather straps at a Chinese sex toy expo in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an AI-driven shift in the industry were quietly brewing.
China makes about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of which is the “stuff” on display — whether it’s technicolor tentacle vibrators or hyperrealistic personalized silicone dolls.
But smart toys have been growing in popularity for quite some time. Many major European and American brands already offer technology-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to an ultimate sci-fi fantasy — robot sex.
Incorporating artificial intelligence has become more popular in the past two years, according to Hannes Hultman, European sales director for Chinese sex toy company Svakom.
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/e575a48910fe47a7.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/e575a48910fe47a7.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
Read also
‘Harvest data’: Latin America’s AI startups are transforming agriculture
“But it’s still a very early stage for a lot of it,” he told AFP on Friday.
Svakom, one of the best-known Chinese brands overseas, is among those venturing further into teledentistry, using networked games to create virtual sexual encounters.
Source: AFP
One of his masturbators can be synced to video to replicate the actions on the screen — either with pre-programmed content via the Svakom app or an AI plug-in that watches a video on approved websites in real time and mimics it.
The company has also partnered with companies that offer AI chatbot “fantasy partners.”
“You can ask the AI to control your game,” Hultman said. “You create your own girlfriend and you actually interact. And now you can basically touch your body through the game.”
Sistalk Technology, a Beijing-based company that made phone software before turning to the adult industry, also has a feature in its app that lets an AI “friend” control a game.
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/44fa30c62f1e7593.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/44fa30c62f1e7593.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
Read also
Microsoft is teasing a realistic avatar AI technology, but not giving a release date
One vendor told AFP that demand from China’s younger generation, with more disposable income and higher standards, was changing the market.
“Even though we’re making sex toys, we’re trying to change the mindset of our community and make (the focus) less pornographic,” he said.
Sistalk’s app can act as a social media platform, with users socializing and sharing their hobbies and preferences.
They can also choose to connect and control each other’s sex toys.
“It’s definitely a new trend, in Europe it’s growing quite a bit — a lot of customers are asking for it,” said Malgorzata Zasada of the company Oninder, which sounds like a Tinder dating app and mimics the way users swipe to find matches.
“In Asia, in China, it’s not that popular right now. But it’s changing and I think it’s going to be a new hit.”
The realistic sex robots, meanwhile, seemed a long way off — the few on the screen moved jerkily, with limited and poorly timed speech.
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/750824a8520805bc.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/750824a8520805bc.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
Read also
Kyrgyzstan’s TikTok block raises censorship fears
Market expansion
Source: AFP
Experts have highlighted the many unanswered ethical questions surrounding the growing use of artificial intelligence for intimacy.
At present, in China, the number of people involved is still small — Sistalk’s domestic app only has about 500 users, tiny in terms of China’s population.
However, the Asia Pacific region is considered a major growth market for sex toys.
At the stall of a company called Wet Stuff, spokesman Ye Pei showed AFP the Australian company’s Chinese-targeted lubricant flavored with baijiu, a popular local alcohol.
Attitudes towards sex have changed drastically in recent years, the 40-year-old thought.
“When I was 20 years old, when I went to buy condoms at the pharmacy, I immediately put them in my pocket and ran. But now… the saleswoman can tell me these condoms are super thin, these make you last longer, these have raised dots,” he laughed.
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/2b163c19f1f3895e.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/2b163c19f1f3895e.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
Read also
A quarter of UK 5 to 7-year-olds have a smart phone: study
Another change has been the rise of “female power,” said a spokesperson for BeU, a brand that focuses exclusively on games for women.
“Everyone is becoming more and more able to accept (adult products), instead of being ashamed of it,” he said.
Source: AFP
Games are now using technology to incorporate aspects of wellness and pleasure.
A vibrator on display at the show was touted as being able to predict ovulation by measuring internal temperature, as well as helping train the pelvic floor muscles.
Others are said to recognize when their user climaxes and remember the pulse patterns that got them there.
The sleek silicone products were a stark contrast to the more traditional stalls, many of which had walls of living, often huge, plastic genitalia that included no technology at all.
“I think a lot of things are changing in the industry,” said Svakom’s Hultman.
“The technology aspect, artificial intelligence… is developing so quickly, it will be very interesting to see where it all goes. But we have big plans.”
Source: AFP