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AI sex dolls are driving China's sexual revolution

There's a big market for customizable dolls with artificial intelligence.

When it comes to sex, China has always been a very conservative country. The government demands that cleavage be censored on TV. and still bans women from eating bananas suggestively on camera. But the life-size sex dolls with artificial intelligence in Yoyo Liu’s company showroom tell a different, and very strange, story. “Last year there was a very big market for dolls,” Liu, general manager of WM Dolls, told us on a recent factory tour. “Every year it grows by about 30 percent.” Her Guangzhou-based company makes 30,000 internet-connected sexbots a year and controls 20 percent of the Chinese sex doll market. The dolls cost up to $10,000 each, and business is booming, in part because Liu’s company allows clients to customize their products. “They like different kinds of vaginas in addition to different body types,” she said.

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Zheng Jiajia, who runs an artificial intelligence company, went so far as to marry his sex doll. The 31-year-old entrepreneur thinks mixing love and tech is the way of the future. “Now there are powerful production forces such as AI, robots, or other technology breakthroughs,” he told us. “So social relationships must adjust accordingly.”

This segment originally aired Jan. 12, 2018 on VICE News Tonight on HBO.