Sex-doll maker tells The New York Times why his forthcoming sex robot won't be as realistic

This man wants to create a realistic sex robot, just not too realistic

(Image credit: The New York Times/YouTube)

published 16 June 2015

Matt McMullen creates very realistic, life-size silicon female sex dolls, and he's moving to incorporate robotics to create the world's first interactive, humanoid sex robot. "I think artists have this sort of weird thing where you're just driven to do something, and sometimes you don't really know why," McMullen tells The New York Times in a short, slightly disturbing video about his quest. "The hope is to create something that will actually arouse someone on an emotional, intellectual level, beyond the physical."

McMullen said the physical programming isn't all that hard, comparing it to the video game Guitar Hero. But while his inanimate sex dolls are as realistic as possible, he doesn't want to go there with his sex robots. "A moving doll is different from a, you know, detailed-to-the-finest-skin-pore copy of a person — and then making it move, for me, is a little off-putting," he said, bringing up "the uncanny valley," the theory that humanoid robots that are too realistic freak people out. "If you keep it far enough away from super-realism, I think you're in safer territory."

But then McMullen veered off in a decidedly not-safe direction: "I want people to develop an emotional attachment not only to the doll, the robot, but the actual character behind it — to develop some sort of love for this being."

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The Times prefaces the video with a note that it "contains sexual themes," and that's true. But be warned, it also has lots of naked sex dolls and a sort of grotesque segment where a woman's robotic head sticks out her tongue repeatedly. In other words, the video is likely NSFW, but it's an interesting look at something that's coming soon, whether it makes us squirm or not. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.