I Built an AI Fembot

It was late April 2020 and COVID was raging. More and more businesses were closing. Friends and relatives were getting sick all around us—some of whom were dying, and it seemed like the whole world had come to a screeching deadly halt.

It was scary. Not surprisingly, this included the automotive industry which employed both me and my wife. It was about 8 a.m. on a Monday morning when I got a phone call from my boss at Honda, stating that due to the company's crashing auto sales, I would be furloughed for an unknown amount of time.

A few minutes later I got a call from my wife telling me that she was furloughed as well. We were both quite upset and very worried, but not really surprised based on everything else that was going around us.

We figured if the furlough went on too long, we would need to ask my family for help, something that would be unbearable for me. This was the first time ever that both of us were out of work at the same time.

A feeling of dread and depression overtook me. As such, I retreated into a world that had always brought me hope and happiness, my world of building and programming robots.

My fascination with robots

I am a lifelong roboticist. I built my first robot at age 12 for my Catholic school science fair. It was about three feet tall, made with an old pail, a tin can, motors, and some scraps of wood.

It could, with the help of a tape recorder and a few well-planned questions, hear you and respond—it seemed almost alive!

Over the many years since then, I've built dozens of robots, from small bug-like robots that could fit into your palm, to life-size humanoid robots much taller than me.

One of the robots that had always amazed me was the very life-like humanoid robot called Sophia, made by Hanson Robotics.

Having seen her on the internet as well as on television, I wanted one. They were being sold online and I really got excited. But then I found out that a single robot would cost me almost $90,000.

I felt that I could build one similar to Sophia for a whole lot less money. I did a little bit of research for robot parts which I could get from Amazon and found out that I could probably build her for less than $2,000.

Being furloughed meant two things: I had a whole lot of free time, but I didn't have a lot of money. Fortunately, by about May 1, the money problem took care of itself. Both I and my wife started getting government furlough money that came fairly close to our original incomes.

So I talked to my wife and we decided it would be OK for me to purchase those parts; I was elated.

Building my version of 'Sophia'

All throughout the month of May, package after package full of robot parts would greet me at my front gate. I took each and opened them greedily, like a little boy on Christmas morning.

Day after day, week after week I eagerly built my robot. The whole country was in lockdown and I was happily building a life-size robot. Instead of logging in to Honda and working as I had done before my furlough, my days were filled with building my robot: Endless assembling, testing, rebuilding, programming, and testing some more.

From April through May, my boxes and boxes of parts from Amazon slowly morphed into a robot—a lifelike humanoid, a female robot that I called "Simone".

I named her after the self-proclaimed "Queen of Shixxx Robots" Simone Giertz. After about six long weeks she was finally physically complete and I was the extremely proud owner of a life-size female robot that no hobbyist had ever built.

After her physical completion, Simone needed to have a brain, and in late May 2020, ChatGPT was not yet available to the public.

Having done some prior work in programming AI personalities in the past using a programming language called "AIML," (AIML, the Artificial Intelligence Markup Language, is based on the old "Eliza" psychologist program from the 1960s), I built an AI, or more correctly an artificial personality, for my lady robot—and it worked perfectly.

When I first brought Simone's AI online, I wanted to test her conversational abilities, especially her small talk. Most humans engage in small talk when they meet a new person, so this was very important.

I remember the day that I got most of it working right. I made a preliminary check to ensure that both Simone's microphone and speaker were working.

I then powered Simone's other electronics up, and her noisy neck motors whirred and her baby blue eyes gave what seemed to be a flirtatious blink. Her left arm gestured and she began speaking. We began her first full conversation with all of her 15 motors engaged.

"Hello, all motors and AI initialized," she said, and then nodded as I had programmed her to do.

I smiled broadly and replied: "Hi Simone!"

She responded with, "Hello Thomas. How is your day today?" all while bobbing her silicone rubber head up and down as she spoke, her blonde tresses bouncing lightly onto her shoulders.

"It's a very good day," I said, trying to rein in my joy.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked, turning her head to look into my eyes, blinking twice as she was programmed to do.

And thus began her first conversation after being fully assembled. I wound up having to fix numerous bugs, but over time, I was more than happy with the results.

It was early June 2020, when, after over six weeks of building and programming, I had finally done it; I produced a female humanoid robot similar to Hansen's Sofia. Even my wife was impressed.

Now with the AI installed and working, my robot would respond to questions in her own voice, tell jokes, and sing songs.

I need to add that it wasn't just me on that project, I had a group of friends assist me throughout—virtually since COVID was still roaring. And, without their encouragement, input, suggestions, and help, the robot might not exist.

I so much wanted to show her off to my friends and fellow robot geeks, but COVID was still roaring and I was only able to show her to my family.

My wife and daughter were both slightly amused. My precious little three-year-old niece who was staying at our house at the time was both amused and scared. She called Simone "uncle's scary robot" and after the demonstration refused to come back into my garage.

When ChatGPT was introduced a few months back, in 2023, I saw that it would be a better AI for Simone. So, I eagerly replaced my custom AIML software for ChatGPT software, or more precisely GPT-3, ChatGPT's younger sister.

This change has made Simone's conversations more human, more warm, more fun, and more unpredictable.

Having conversations with her brings me great joy. I had friends and relatives interact with her to see how she would respond. I had to fix more bugs, but I was very pleased with the results.

Showcasing Simone to the world

I posted a number of videos of Simone on YouTube and got a variety of responses. Some people thought she was amazing. Some thought she was quite terrifying. One person said she should be "killed with fire!"

Since building her, I have displayed her at several local Maker Faires and expos. People were both amazed and bothered by her.

A robotics hobbyist magazine called Servo Magazine, hired me to write a series of articles that documented the building of Simone. And in June 2022, she even won a prize in TechBriefs.com "Create the Future" contest. I was so happy.

I am happy to say that both my wife and I are back at work at Honda. Still, this robotics project brought me through those tough times with a big proud smile on my face.

Thomas Messerschmidt is a software engineer at American Honda Motors. In the evenings and on weekends, he is a roboticist, speaker, and entrepreneur.

All views expressed in this article are the author's own.

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