Annotation
By 2025, 'sex robots' amounted to high-end silicone dolls with rudimentary animatronic heads and chatbot-level conversation, retailing for $5,000 to $15,000 — novelty items, not household companions. The actual disruption in intimacy came from an entirely different direction: AI chatbot companions like Replika, parasocial relationships conducted through screens, and OnlyFans. Pearson predicted a hardware revolution and got a software one.
What Actually Happened
By 2025, 'sex robots' remained high-end silicone dolls with rudimentary animatronic heads and chatbot-level conversation, retailing for $5,000-$15,000 — novelty purchases, not household fixtures, and certainly not limited to the very wealthy. No major market penetration occurred in affluent households. The actual disruption in intimacy came from AI chatbot companions like Replika (30 million users), parasocial relationships conducted through screens, and platforms like OnlyFans — a software revolution, not the hardware one Pearson predicted.