It’s 2023, where are the sex robots? ‘They will probably never be as huge as everyone thinks’

The man leans towards the woman on his couch. "What is your favourite meal?" he asks, his accent French. "Electricity," she says, with a strong Scottish inflection. "It provides me energy and has a kick to it."

The slight, bespectacled, increasingly bemused man peppers her with questions as they sit. Her blond hair gleams, her dark-rimmed eyes are placid, her lips a full and glossy pout. "Can I call you Charlotte?" he asks.

"Sure baby, OK," she says. "From now on my name will be Charlotte. I like it."

The man is Cyrus North - a French YouTuber with more than 700,000 followers who describes himself as a technology lover and philosopher. He bought "Charlotte" for about €11,000.

Charlotte's original name was Harmony, and she is a sex robot.

Not to be mistaken for a sex doll, which doesn't move or speak, sex robots, or sexbots, are android, mechanical devices that use artificial intelligence and are designed for humans to have sexual intercourse with.

Humans (mostly men) have fantasised about sex robot-like beings since before Ovid wrote the tale of the sculptor Pygmalion bringing his creation, Galatea, to life. In more recent times, it is reflected in television series such as Westworld and films including Steven Spielberg's A.I., Alex Garlands's Ex Machina and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. And who could forget the fembots in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, with their fully armed bazookas?