Brampton Man’s Robot Girl Brings Him Fame But Not Fortune
Posted December 11, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
British tabloids are calling it his ‘robot girlfriend’, but a 33-year-old Brampton man maintains that Aiko, which means ‘Love Child’ in Japanese, is merely a research project, albeit a costly, time-consuming one.
The fem-bot has been programmed by creator Trung Le to read, swat away an inappropriately placed hand, and speak about 13,000 sentences in English and Japanese.
It can also apparently have an orgasm, but its creator maintains he’s more interested in teaching her to perform household tasks, like cleaning his ears and making him sushi.
“I’m hoping she’ll become the perfect helper,” he admits. “If she can do some minimal housework, then yes, the perfect woman,” he adds somewhat chauvinistically.
Aiko took two months to build and cost $25,000 to make. In order to do so, Le used up his entire life savings, maxed out his credit cards and was forced to move back in with his parents.
He’s currently dreaming up ways to make her more life-like, like giving her tastes buds and giving her the tools to walk.
In the meantime, they live together like a couple, and bicker like one, too, the ultimate odd couple.
When he asks her to lick his feet, she replies, “No I am not your personal slave.”
Sounds about as realistic as it gets.
Le has been trying to raise funds to continue his research, but his story has received so much publicity, it’s knocked his website offline. If you’d like to contribute or just see more of this amazing automaton, you can see if it’s back by clicking here.
