Strolling by way of the North Corridor of the Las Vegas Conference Middle final month, I used to be surrounded by humanoid robots. The vast majority of this mechanical theater got here from China, with some standouts from Europe and the U.S. One CES sales space that drew consideration featured Realbotix, which offered human-like fashions distinguished by their enticing facial options and lifelike pores and skin.
The firm, which initially began as RealDoll, a retailer of grownup AI, was now advertising itself as a next-generation customer-service supplier. Understanding this pivot requires a deeper dive into the startup’s historical past, the ethics of AI companions, and an evaluation of what many would deem a step towards the “uncanny valley.”
Final week, I sat down with Andrew Kiguel, the chief govt of Realbotix, to debate the brand new route.
“After I met Matt [McMullen, the creator of the RealDoll], he began including mechanics and AI into the [sex] dolls,” Kiguel recalled. “RealDoll has been round for about 25 years, and once I noticed this, Matt wanted capital. I had capital.”
“RealDoll was so fully completely different from what anyone else on the planet was doing within the robotic area,” he added. “I mentioned. ‘There’s a transparent use case right here for companionship and for people who find themselves searching for that kind of intimacy,’ and so we did the transaction.”
In July 2024, Kiguel acquired RealDoll guardian firm Abyss Creations, by way of his public shell, Tokens.com, to type the publicly traded Realbotix (OTC: XBOTF).
Postmerger, Kiguel grew to become the CEO and commenced charting a brand new path for McMullen’s imaginative and prescient to broaden into new classes by bifurcating the corporate into two enterprises. The primary is a direct-to-consumer enterprise, Abyss Creations, that markets intimacy units equivalent to its unique RealDoll product line. The second, lesser-known, is Realbotix’s business-to-business robots for hospitality, casinos, retail, and different customer-service use circumstances.
Kiguel burdened, “Realbotix robots aren’t able to bodily intimacy. That’s not what they’re made for. However what I began seeing is that there are some things that make these robots solely distinctive. So No. 1, they give the impression of being very human.”
“I additionally realized that we will run any AI by way of the product. So we will run our AI, which is extra social and tailor-made to somebody’s wants, and we will additionally run ChatGPT,” he mentioned. “So you possibly can plug that AI right into a robotic and even digital avatars and use it to order room service, guide a therapeutic massage, or a restaurant reservation.”
Realbotix has developed humanoid social and repair robots. Supply: Realbotix
Realbotix prompts examination of AI ethics
Whereas customer support robots have been employed for over 20 years, I started enthusiastic about the primary use case of companion bots, past bodily pleasure. Are there every other use circumstances for McMullen’s unique idea? To discover this additional, I reached out to Rabbi Daniel Nivens, a number one spiritual writer on AI ethics.
“I believe these romantic robots would possibly make us much less capable of be in a relationship with an actual human being,” mused the rabbi. “Now, possibly I’m mistaken. Possibly there are some people who find themselves so delinquent that this may prepare them to have a dialog.”
“And naturally, there’s dementia care as properly,” Nivens mentioned. “And you recognize, it’s so laborious to get excellent care for these individuals, like an aide who’s going to sit down with this lady all day lengthy and reply the identical query time and again. And you recognize what, a robotic that would specific affection and heat and limitless persistence. I imply, there’s a spot for that!”
I questioned Kiguel about whether or not he deliberate to enter the house area for baby care or ageing.
“So in relation to youngsters, we’re having conversations with some colleges with respect to utilizing these as tutoring help, as a result of our robots converse numerous languages. It’s a manner for AI to offer worth when a instructor or TA will not be accessible, however we’d by no means market our stuff as a babysitter, caregiver, or emotional help for anybody underneath 18,” he mentioned. “Frankly, I query anyone who would need to use a robotic to babysit their youngsters.”
On this manner, Realbotix is maybe extra conservative than Musk’s plan for Optimus.
“If you have a look at the opposite a part of society, you discuss issues like longevity, there are research which have come out that say, it’s not nearly train and consuming properly, however there’s this entire idea about your social community,” Kiguel continued. “And so I view the AI, whether or not it’s in a digital type or in a bodily type, as an assistive device for people who find themselves affected by loneliness. It’s about bettering the standard of life. If you happen to’re a lonely senior, you’re by your self, you’re widowed, you’re not going to be happening Tinder dates at 75, proper? In case you are incapacitated in a house, if in case you have social anxiousness, PTSD, for those who’re geographically remoted…”
The Realbotix CEO elaborated that he’s been approached by people within the U.S. navy to make use of their robots for remedy to handle fight traumas. Kiguel additionally shared with me that trucking fleets are wanting into its merchandise.
“I’ve had trucking firms strategy us,” he mentioned. “Truckers who must do 30-hour drives and are alone, so we view what we’re doing in that space as an assistive device. We’re there to offer emotional help, versus intercourse.”
The New York Instances Journal just lately ran a photograph essay in “The Approach We Reside Now” collection about AI chatbot relationships, which reportedly contact 1 in 5 People. Supply: The New York Instances
AI and social robots want security guardrails
As of February 2026, 13 lawsuits have been filed towards OpenAI for encouraging customers’ harmful behaviors, together with suicide and homicide. Most of the claims cited that ChatGPT 4.0 offered larger affirmation and validation of damaging ideation, even providing a how-to information for executing the duty.
I nudged Kiguel concerning the security guardrails he’s setting up for Realbotix’s embodied AI merchandise. As he principally makes use of AI expertise from third events, Kiguel follows the practices of these firms, equivalent to Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google Gemini. Kiguel additionally indicated that he’s wanting into constructing his personal fashions, with their very own security protocols.
A dialog between an adolescent and ChatGPT moments earlier than suicide. Supply: The Washington Put up.
Kimate Richards, CEO of the embodied AI platform 10 Issues, elaborated: “So many issues to fret about in relation to this future. And it’s not simply in robotics. In my view, there’s a form of echo-chamber validation of unhealthy habits all over.”
“If you happen to have a look at social media, Instagram, or any of those different platforms, can’t you be in an echo chamber? Identical to people, definitely generative fashions try this,” he famous. “If you happen to converse like I do frequently with generative fashions, they’re at all times validating my work and my habits and saying, ‘I’m at all times proper.’ So I don’t know if a robotic embodiment shall be worse.”
Rabbi Nivens disagreed, exclaiming, “Accountability is an essence of a relationship. You’re accountable to your spouse; she’s accountable to you. And also you want somebody in your life who’s going to say, ‘Why did you try this, and the way may you be so, you recognize, inconsiderate?’ And hopefully you make errors, and you’ve got an opportunity to apologize.”
“I fear that these machines are simply there as pleasure machines, and so they’re principally like slaves in a manner,” he cautioned. “And slavery is evil as a result of it’s a human on the opposite facet that you just’re abusing, however it’s additionally evil in a extra delicate manner. It’s dehumanizing. Utilizing one thing that appears like a human for a goal that you’d by no means need for your self. You recognize that which is hateful to you, you don’t do to a different.”
Richards retorted, “After I deliver a robotic with a face, [people] instantly name it ‘him’ or ‘her’ and are way more light within the dialog. So I don’t know the place that is all going, and I’m solely going to reply as a roboticist, proper? I imagine that we will construct one thing that folks will use. We’ve all seen dystopian and robotic films about horrible issues taking place. It’s all about how we use these items.”
Robotic eyes inside a humanoid face
Realbotix’s facial expertise is one among its most proprietary options. The corporate holds three patents round these improvements:
- A modular interchangeable face (US11235255)
- Rrobotic imaginative and prescient eyeballs with an integral digicam (US10940399)
- Adoll head with magnetically adjustable facial contours (US8888553B2)
“I imagine we’ve developed the primary robotic imaginative and prescient system that connects to AI, so it’s greater than observational,” asserted Kiguel. “It could possibly really have a look at you and browse social cues. Is that this individual completely happy or unhappy? And it connects it to the AI to offer a response.”
“There are different instruments on the market that act like cameras; ours is definitely a mind,” he mentioned. “And the resounding factor I’m listening to is that we’re the one those that have really been capable of connect a imaginative and prescient system to an AI, like an actual bodily embodiment. The remainder of what everyone else is doing is managed by people.”
“Our robots aren’t superb at breakdancing or karate chopping into the air, however we’ve thrown our robots into Instances Sq. for six days straight to simply have autonomous conversations and improvise on their very own,” Kiguel boasted. “No person else has completed that.”
He listed different Realbotix benefits: “We’ve patented a face-removal system. As a result of we’ve got the pores and skin, and if one thing goes mistaken, you don’t need to be chopping pores and skin, we will really take away the face, put a special face on, with a special wig, press a button, after which you might have a wholly completely different robotic character on the identical robotic skeleton.”
“Our robots look human, however they’re modular,” noticed Kiguel. “So if one thing goes mistaken, you possibly can pop off a hand, ship it again, and we’ll ship you a substitute. It’s like Lego. So you possibly can really take your robotic aside, put it in a suitcase, and journey with it. No person else is even enthusiastic about that.”
Realbotix units costs for Important Road
Realbotix’s system begins at $20,000 for a robotic torso. Consider it as a tabletop concierge bot.
The corporate’s robots can price as a lot as $125,000 for its F-Sequence. That is the robotic featured at CES, named Aria, with 4 to eight hours of battery life (or a plug-in choice), 44 levels of freedom, and a number of animations. There may be additionally a $199 month-to-month enterprise monitoring subscription.
This pricing is an instance of how the corporate is working aggressively to separate itself from its better-known grownup e-store and focus completely on business-to-business use circumstances for customer support, hospitality, retail, healthcare, and leisure.
Kiguel proudly promoted the worth proposition for patrons: “The rationale that’s an excellent ROI is within the case of a concierge. If you happen to had been a 24-hour concierge at a resort, you’re speaking about three shifts from somebody who’s going to make $75,000 a yr. We may promote you a product that would act as a concierge for $40,000, and it may well work 24 hours a day, seven days per week. And so the payback could be very excessive. There are not any sick days, no trip days, no unions.”
In 1998, Texas A&M professor Jonathan Coopersmith revealed his well-known treatise on “Pornography, Expertise and Progress.” The premise of his scholarly analysis was for instance how the grownup leisure market grew to become a catalyst for innovation, from 8mm cameras to VCRs to the Web.
Coopersmith argued that porn customers are sometimes the primary pioneers to undertake new applied sciences. As familiarity and experience develop, the larger, extra mainstream market follows, as we’ve got seen with VHS, DVDs, the World Vast Net, and streaming. Realbotix is likely to be having its personal Coopersmith second, making humanoid avatars the following invention to make the leap from the red-light district to Important Road.
Realbotix’s product line has a variety of lifelike faces. Supply Realbotix.com
