Texting has created a million problems, but one of the most prevalent is that empty feeling you get when someone you like doesn’t text you back. It’s why one young woman is making herself a robot boyfriend, who texts back and is probably very sweet and attentive. He also looks a little bit like Wall-E, which is adorable, just not very sexy.
In an interview with Mashable, an artist named Fei Liu explained the reason why she’s interested in creating robots and why her version of a “sex doll” is different than what’s out available on the market.
Gabriel 2052 is a pretty cool piece of technology, different than most sex dolls available who look bad and can only do a few clunky commands. This robot contains a library of knowledge about Liu, including her favorite books, movies, words, and places where she likes to be touched. Whenever they’re away from each other, Gabriel sends her text messages, which are sort of coherent for a robot. This ability to text is one of Gabriel’s most complex features, demonstrating a “boyfriend” robot that’s more romantic and layered than what you’d expect. Liu claims that her purpose with creating a robot like this one is to help people feel less alone and like they deserve love.
The name Gabriel 2052 has an interesting origin: Gabriel is the name of the most famous sex doll available on the market, and 2052 is the year where experts predict that marriage with robots will be legal.
While a lot of people get freaked out by the concept of sex robots, Lui believes that robots aren’t out there to replace humans. She claims that there are things that robots can do better than us, and that that’s something worth pursuing. Gabriel 2052 is also an opportunity for her to become a better coder, and to learn more about robots and technology.
On her free time, Liu gives free workshops where she teaches people the basics of building robots and code. You can check out Lui’s website here, and watch the full interview below.
