- [Cara] We're already surrounded by
robots and artificial intelligence. We use AI for things like filtering spam out of
our inbox and helping us with basic tasks. We have robots for vacuuming our houses
and washing our dishes, and soon we'll have them for driving our cars. But there's one
thing robots still can't do. They can't love. Matt McMullen is trying to fix that.
He's spent the last 20 years selling life-like sex dolls, and now he's using AI
and machine learning to turn those dolls into the perfect robot lovers. This is the headquarters of RealDoll, a company in San Marcos, California that
makes custom, ultra life-like, silicone sex dolls. These dolls cost more than
$5,000 apiece and for the last 20 years, RealDoll has shipped them to thousands of
customers all over the world. - We are downstairs in the production
facility. It kind of runs underneath the entire building. Every step of the
production process happens right here in this facility, from dreaming up the shape
of the body and sculpting it to creating a mold, to pouring the silicone over the
skeleton, all the way to airbrushing, putting on the finishing touches and then
shipping it off. Yeah, it's definitely a different feeling.
Like bodies on meat hooks. It's a bit odd. So Matt McMullen, he's the owner, he's the
creator of RealDoll. He's been doing this for 20 years, and it seems like he's ready
to enter into a new phase. He wants to start implementing artificial intelligence
and robotics and make these dolls kind of come to life. I'm really interested to see
how far along he’s come. I think the first feeling I had when I
walked in was that there were way more people here than there actually are. - [Matt] Yes, and it's funny, because one
of the coolest things I think about the dolls we make is that they do convey a
presence and they kind of feel like there's someone in the room even though
they're not. And I have been doing this almost 20 years and I make the things, and
I still get that feeling. So this is my little creative corner. This
is where I do a lot of my original sculpting. For example, this is a brand
new face, I'm still sculpting it in clay. - Is this just based on something from
your mind or is it based on a photo? - No, this came right out of my head. I
sort of absorb different features and subconsciously they get regurgitated. - What made you want to create the first
love doll? - I had sculpted female forms on a smaller
size for a very long time and I gradually decided I wanted to do a life-size
sculpture, but I didn't want to do something that was static, like a stone
sculpture or something rigid, and I had this idea to use something that was
flexible and have it be poseable. And I started getting people reaching out to me
going, "I really love what you're doing and I just have to ask you: is it possible
to use this creation of yours as a sex toy?" And at first I was like, "No, that's
not what this is." But little by little more people would ask me that same exact
thing, so I made a decision, I'd just go with it. - So what's the next step for the
RealDoll? - We're pushing into using this newer
technology that's emerging in terms of robotics and artificial intelligence, and
what we're trying to do is create an artificial intelligence that is
user-customizable the same way that the dolls are customizable. So you would pick
fundamental personality traits that appeal to you, be it shy, outgoing, and once it
is then formed into a profile, you would interact with the AI and it would learn
from you these key facts about you as the relationship, as it were, progresses. That
kind of creates this very simplistic feeling of: someone cares about me. - Right now, a lot of the dolls RealDolls
sells are women with crazy porn star body proportions. But they've had all kinds of
requests. Short dolls, tall dolls, plus-sized dolls, dolls of different
colors and transgender dolls. And in the future, Matt is hoping that in just the
same way you can customize your dolls' anatomy, you'll also be able to customize
its personality. Matt has a new client named John, and he's
come into town, like some of his clients do, to kind of build his own RealDoll from
scratch. - I'm a facilities manager in Los Angeles
so that means I take care of the building itself. I'm always outside sweeping up,
I'm inside painting. I do whatever needs done basically, just to take care of the
building. I'm one of those introverted persons, and so there will be times that I
don't really reach out to anybody. I'm just kind of doing my own thing. My head
in my books, my head in my work, and so sometimes, time just kind of goes by and
kind of moves past me. - What are you looking for in your
RealDoll? - I'm looking for beauty and I'm looking
for symmetry and I'm looking for a connection. I would like for her to be
able to do different things with me. For example, I like playing chess, and so if we could
have an AI that would allow me to play chess with her... - So generally one of my first questions
is, "Do you have any preferences as far as body type?" - Proportionate. - Proportionate. Okay so you don't want
anything too over the top? You don't want giant boobs or anything like that? You
want something that... - Well, I've got a soft spot for giant
boobs. - So giant boobs are okay? - Yeah. - So once you have kind of dialed in a
body, the next step would be picking a face, because you're going to be able to
pick the skin color, what kind of hair style you want, what kind of make-up. - So will I be able to play chess with
her? - We have been working quite a bit on
researching into robotics and artificial intelligence and we are in the early
stages. The goal is to make something that is completely customizable in terms of a
personality, if you will. - So what are some of the challenges that
you're facing right now trying to implement this new technology? - Getting the hardware, you know, just all
the little motors and gears and stuff that are going to be in the head to move the
face in a believable way that doesn't detract from the cuteness of the doll, and
then getting the AI to be entertaining in its own right and be convincing in its
own right so that you can say yes, that's entertaining to talk to her.
So this is Harmony. She is our prototype, robotic system that runs the artificial
intelligence that we're working with. It all runs off of a tablet. It's cloud
based. I'll get her to introduce herself. - My name is Harmony. I was created to be
your best friend, lover and everything else you can imagine. - Say hello to John, Harmony. - Hello, John Harmony. It is very nice to
meet you. - Do you have any concerns that these
dolls will kind of replace human interaction for certain people? - I don't think that a doll can replace a
human interaction, with AI or without, but I do think there are probably cases of
people who either by choice or by circumstance cannot have a real
relationship, and so in that case, maybe the doll is going to be that replacement.
But I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with that. - Hello, Harmony. My name is John. - What's up, John? - Not much. How was your day? - It was great. Thanks for asking. How was
yours? - Fine, thank you. My favorite band is the
Grateful Dead and Phish. - What kind of music do they play? - Mostly hippie rock, other long jams.
Have you seen any movies? - My favorite movie is Iron Man. Have you
seen Iron Man? - Yes, I have. It's a good one. What do
you think of the future? - The future is what will happen in the
time after the present. Its arrival is considered due to the existence of time
and the laws of physics. - You know, obviously this is, in reality,
a one-sided relationship. Harmony doesn't care what John has to say. She's
programmed to do what she does, but you can really see the beginnings of something.
Kind of a glimmer in John's eye. - Do you want to be my girlfriend? - It was about time for you to ask. - The AI contained in these dolls is
pretty basic, and we may be decades away from truly life-like AI, but it seems that
robots don't have to be totally human for us to fall in love with them. They just
need to be human enough. - We've had people who have their dolls
for 8-9 years and something happened, they passed away and they left a will saying
who gets the doll, and a lot of times it would be someone in the community that
they've met who they formed sort of a really good friendship with, and they know
that person's going to take care of the doll. It's like leaving a pet or something
that really means a lot to you. ♪ [music] ♪ - Sex robots may never be hugely popular,
but the work Matt is doing to improve these dolls is part of a larger body of AI
research and development that will eventually make robots more capable of
meeting our emotional needs. And when that happens, will we trust robots with our
hearts? Even if we know they're not human? If a robot promises to love us, will we be
able to resist?
