RealDoll's first sex robot took me to the uncanny valley

During my four-hour visit to the birthplace of the RealDoll, the frighteningly life-like full-body sex toy, I've seen mounds of silicone vaginas, sheets of detached nipples, headless women hanging from meat hooks, a 2-foot penis and skulls with removable faces that attach like refrigerator magnets. Now, as we sit in the dim light of his R&D room, staring at his latest creation, Matt McMullen, the founder of Abyss Creations (the parent company behind the RealDoll), nonchalantly turns to me and says, "All I see is potential." For a man poised to bring millennia of male desire to life, McMullen, a small but striking figure who looks like a reformed industrial rocker, is surprisingly calm. Later this week, he'll launch Harmony AI, the heart of RealBotix, a platform intended to bring artificial intelligence to McMullen's sex dolls and companionship to the lonely, eccentric or curious. Harmony AI is part Android app, part sexualized personal assistant available for download directly from RealBotix.