And Henk van Ess, a global expert in using AI in investigative research, has proven how useful it can be - but it would be safe to say he does not believe it lies in starter packs. "It's like watching a supercomputer calculate how many Hobnobs fit in a Sports Direct mug, while solving climate change sits on the'to-do' list," he said. But it's the technological equivalent of using the Large Hadron Collider to heat up your Pot Noodle. "While everyone's busy generating these digital equivalents of small talk, they're missing the actually revolutionary stuff AI can do - it's just wasteful to put all that energy into creating digital fluff when we can use it for solving real-world problems."

ZHONGSHAN, CHINA – Amid Beijing's push to turn the country into an artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouse and embed the technology in all facets of life, some Chinese entrepreneurs are taking the expertise to a new frontier: sex dolls. WMDOLL, one of China's biggest sex doll makers, which is based in the southeastern province of Guangdong, launched what it calls AI-powered dolls at end of 2016 that offer features ranging from simple conversation to moving eyes, arms and torsos. Customers can personalize their dolls by choosing various appearance options including height, hairstyle and eye color. AI features on the dolls are still very basic: they can answer questions but cannot hold longer conversations. The doll uses vocabulary by connecting to a database supported by Chinese tech giant Baidu.

Disturbing images have emerged from inside a Chinese sex robot factory where people can order custom-made AI dolls, some of which are the size of children. The AI dolls, which cost on average $3,100 (£2,300), have soft and elastic skin made from rubbery plastic that contain less oil content than normal plastics and reportedly do not smell. The plastic is heated to 37 C to reflect a human's body temperature and developers say these perverse dolls have body sensors that also make them feel human-like. The company that makes the robots, Shenzhen Atall Intelligent Robot Technology which is based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, says most of its clients are 40 to 50-year-old men that come from Europe and the US. Disturbing images give an insight into China's strange sex robot factory where people can order custom-made AI dolls, some of which are the size of children.