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The woman making her own robot boyfriend

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Chinese artist Fei Liu has taken it upon herself to create a boyfriend from algorithms and robot parts.

Dating is difficult. Putting yourself out there and attempting to find a partner can be intimidating and exhausting. So why not create one from scratch?

That might sound a little like a dodgy episode of Black Mirror, but Chinese artist Fei Liu is currently attempting to build a robot boyfriend, one that can communicate with her in real time and send messages via apps.

It’s called Gabriel2052 – named after a sex doll that’s already on the market – and uses Fei’s previous conversations with her ex-boyfriend as a basis for its own behaviour. Its creation is a part of a larger project called ‘Build The Love You Deserve’, which is a performance series that looks extensively at the level of affection that’s possible between robots and humans.

Fei hopes that her work will bring more gender equality and inclusivity into the virtual sex industry, a community that is predominantly comprised of men.

How does her creation work?  

Gabriel2052 uses text message conversations between Fei and her ex-boyfriend to create its own rules for chatting. It picks up patterns, tones of voice, and Fei’s emotional needs to simulate organic conversation. There are a ton of benefits to this kind of interaction when compared to a human being. You can tweak the coding to best suit you, garner responses consistently and reliably, and you definitely won’t be ghosted by a man you’ve been on three dates with and kinda had your hopes on.

Things are less ideal when it comes to what Gabriel actually looks like, mind, as Fei’s robot is more about the algorithm and codding behind it than anything else. The current build looks like a cross between a miniature Wall-E and a LEGO Bionicle and, admittedly, is somewhat nightmarish. It can make basic moves to show ‘affection’ but the technology is limited for now. When she spoke to the Stylist, Fei explained that the look is a ‘stand-in’ for something that may look more human-like in the future.

Unless robot gremlins are your thing, of course.

What are Fei’s hopes for the project?

Although this kind of romantic or intimate connection with an AI seems a bit uncanny at first, it’s definitely not something new. Pop culture has forever been fascinated with the possibilities of love between human and machine.

The film Her, for example, follows the story of Theodore Twombly, who falls head over heels for an adaptive algorithm. Even the protagonist in Microsoft’s Halo develops romantic feelings for his partnered AI, Cortana. The concept isn’t totally alien – it’s the move into actual, real life that might throw some people off, but Fei’s goal to is to make the world of virtual sex and intimacy more gender balanced and a slightly less male-centric environment.

‘The creators of AI sex dolls and love dolls are mostly men who are creating hyper-sexualised female figures’, she said to the Stylist. ‘Creating Gabriel is my position against that movement’.

Fei also says that her work has helped her to find other women in tech who are working on projects outside of her field, creating dialogue and a greater sense of community. She runs free workshops for anyone who wants to build a robot along similar lines. Each person programmes their robot to behave in whatever ways they want, for better or worse. It’s a way to discover what you would want in a partner, and ask yourself why you’re looking for someone who behaves in certain ways.

The tech is still in its early stages, but Fei’s work could see robotics move into recreating emotional, intimate interaction between human beings, rather than simply fulfilling the sexual fantasies of straight men. It’s a mostly unexplored world but, if Gabriel is anything to go by, there’s certainly potential for us to use machines to self-discover and learn more about the things we actually want out of love.

You may want to stick to Tinder and Hinge for now, though, at least until the technology becomes more widespread.

Editor In Chief London, UK

I’m Charlie (He/Him), the Editor In Chief at Thred. I studied English at the University of Birmingham and as a music and gaming enthusiast, I’m a nerd for pop culture. You can find me curating playlists, designing article headline images, and sipping cider on a Thursday. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

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