During her testimony in Donald Trump’s criminal trial, adult film star Stormy Daniels didn’t mince words: At one point, she acknowledged she had once called him an “orange turd.” 

Daniels’ language was a far cry from the kind of words uttered by today’s talking sex dolls, like the ones produced by California’s RealDoll, a subsidiary of Abyss Creations. These are sexy, custom-made AI-enabled dolls that are programmed to never say anything mean or insulting. They are designed to flatter the user and always be compliant. They never say, “No, don’t do that,” or “Get lost!” Daniels herself gave RealDoll the license to produce Stormy Daniels sex dolls, but these dolls were silent and couldn’t talk. 

The difference between a real-life adult film star and a simulated one tells us much about the kind of sex dolls many users apparently prefer—the ones that have tightly controlled conversations. And the difference tells us much about users social attitudes towards women themselves.