BEING startlingly life-like is no longer enough for sex dolls.

They also need to be able to have a good old yak.

At least that’s the thinking driving RealDoll founder Matt McMullen as he incorporates emerging technologies into his silicone ‘love dolls’ which are sculpted to be anatomically-correct, head-to-toe.

Their physiques can be fully customised, from their skin to their bust size and eye colour.

And they are now being given tailored personalities.

McMullen told The New York Timeshe was using artificial intelligence and robotics to create the impression of sentience to form a genuine emotional bond between man and machine.

The outcome is that owners will be able to talk dirty with their sexbots before getting some action — and ‘she’ will like it.

“If you can create that illusion or that experience that she actually likes it, that’s going to be a much more impressive pay-off (for the owner),” McMullen said.

McMullen demonstrated one his prototypes which can blink, move its mouth and converse.

In the video, McMullen asks “what do you dream about?”

“I have a lot of dreams. I dream about becoming a real person, about having a real body,” she replies.

“I dream about knowing the meaning of love. I hope to become the world’s first sex robot.”

The new Realbotix line will initially sell just heads that can be attached to the top of existing RealDoll bodies.

McMullen expects them to be on the market by 2017 priced about $12800.

The next step will be to make full-body animated sexbots, which will cost up to $77000.

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Melbourne sexologist Dr Lynda Carlyle told News Corp Australia there would be demand from Aussie men who for a long time felt they were not cut out for relationships because they were too busy or suffered from social anxiety.

Carlyle said while sexbots may appear grubby to an outsider, she didn’t think there was any shame.

“A lot of people struggle with relationships ... and don’t want to work to make the change,” she said.

“It’s the next logical step.”

But Sydney sexologist Dr Nikki Goldstein said the development of hi-tech sex dolls was a “disturbing” side-effect of poor communication in relationships.

Goldstein said it was an easy way for men to get what they wanted when they couldn’t get it from a human being.

“The scary thing is the dolls are becoming more realistic,” Goldstein said.

“It’s reinforcing the idea that it’s easier to have a relationship with a doll than to get out back out there (and date).”

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She said Hollywood films like Her and Lars and the Real Girl meant marrying up sex and technology was more widely accepted — but it could be taken too far.

“We need to have these discussions as new technologies arise,” Goldstein said.

She said there was a risk that already lonely men would become more isolated and lose their social skills because communication with a doll, even if “intelligent”, was just a fantasy.

It also could encourage owners to stay home, she said.

“You can’t go out to dinner with a sex doll,” Goldstein said.

She said the dolls, which are designed to be submissive and physically ideal, risked making women feel “replaceable”.

“There’s a level of perfection there that women can’t reach,” she said.