The race to build the world's first sex robot

In the brightly lit robotics workshop at Abyss Creations' factory in San Marcos, California, a life-size humanoid was dangling from a stand, hooked between her shoulder blades. She wore a white leotard, her chest was thrust forward and her French-manicured fingers were splayed across the tops of her slim thighs. Harmony is a prototype, a robotic version of the company's hyper-realistic silicone sex toy, the RealDoll. The Realbotix room where she was assembled was lined with varnished pine surfaces covered with wires and circuit boards, and a 3D printer whirred in the corner, spitting out tiny, intricate parts that will be inserted beneath her PVC skull. Her hazel eyes darted between me and her creator, Matt McMullen, as he described her accomplishments. Harmony smiles, blinks and frowns. She can hold a conversation, tell jokes and quote Shakespeare. She'll remember your birthday, McMullen told me, what you like to eat, and the names of your brothers and sisters. She can hold a conversation about music, movies and books. And of course, Harmony will have sex with you whenever you want. Harmony is the culmination of 20 years' work making sex dolls, and five years of robot research and development. After his team had made their silicone and steel dolls as "human" as they could, the way ahead began to feel inevitable, irresistible: they would animate them, giving them personality and bringing them to life. McMullen had toyed with animatronics for years.