RealDoll founder says Realbotix is making robot heads with ‘intimate friendship’ AI, but no sexbots
The man behind RealDoll’s sex robots has said that they “remain a priority”, following an acquisition and new company focus on “non-adult” AI companionship robots. He also said that robot heads with “intimate friendship” AI are being developed by the newly-public company.
Matt McMullen is the founder of Abyss Creations, which produces RealDoll sex dolls and ‘robots’: arguably the most well-known sex robots in the Western world. Simulacra Corporation, of which Abyss Creations and robotics/AI company Realbotix were subsidiaries, was recently acquired by the investment firm Tokens.com. The resulting organization was launched as a public company going under the name Realbotix.
McMullen (pictured below, right) is now President and COO of Realbotix. He told SEXTECHGUIDE that a major priority for Robotix is making AI robots designed for human companionship that will not be suitable for sex. Robotix also plans to create AI robots for commercial and government use, for example for theme parks, education, marketing, or medical and military training.
“RealDoll and its products will remain a priority,” he said. “However, we have ambitions to expand outside the adult market. We are leveraging out knowledge to produce customized robots and AI.”
McMullen added: “Our goal is to be a billion-dollar business churning out thousands of robots eventually across various sectors and for various use cases.”
He confirmed that RealDoll will continue to sell sex robot products, but said “there are no immediate plans to create robotic bodies to be used as sex robots. We have never designed or sold any robotic bodies for use as sex robots… the robotic heads attached to static, but posable, bodies are a stable platform.”
Indeed, while RealDoll devices are considered sex robots, it’s only their heads that are truly robotic. Sex robot designers globally have struggled to make robotic body parts feasible for commercial sex robots. Issues such as heaviness, clunky movement and prohibitively high costs for full-body robotics mean that most sex robots are really more like high-end love dolls with robotic heads.
McMullen said that “hundreds” of RealDoll bodies with robotic heads had been sold in the past few years, with prices ranging from around $4,000 to $15,000. Realbotix will continue RealDoll sales, and Realbotix will separately offer companionship robots with AI-powered conversation and learning ability.
McMullen said that these robots will be head units rather than full-body robots. Realbotix is more likely to target commercial and government sectors for full-body robot sales.
Speaking of full-body robots for home use, McMullen says they are still several years away.
“I don’t think the tech is there yet, maintenance requirements and price points make sense for us or anyone else. As prices decline and tech evolves, we will move into the home retail market for full-sized robots, but I don’t see that for several years,” McMullen said.
Aria, Realbotix’s flagship social robot, was recently unveiled online and exists as a physical robot and as an avatar. Realbotix is set to reveal its ‘next-generation’ robot, which is expected to be a different robot to Aria, in January 2025.
Realbotix is also working on a new companionship AI system for its new social robots. The plan is for it to be offered as a monthly subscription service, accessed through a robot head in your home, or through a phone or computer, perhaps similarly to a companionship app such as Replika.
“The AI, which can be customized to have various personalities, will keep track of conversations to build an intimate friendship with its subscribers,” McMullen said.
McMullen said that this new companionship AI system won’t be appearing in RealDoll devices from the off, just in “non-adult use” social robots. However, he said that RealDoll’s existing AI functionality will be improved soon.
He said Robotix will have an “update to the software that runs the [NSFW] RealDoll X robotic heads [shown above], which will include some very impressive improvements, including upgraded LLM capabilities.”
These RealDoll AI updates may also be previewed at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas in January 2025, though the show is historically not very good at dealing with sextech.
