What Would It Take for a Sex Robot to Pass a Turing Test?

At what point does a robot become more than just a vessel for satisfying a human's needs? That's one of the many questions posed by the new HBO series Westworld, based on that other Michael Crichton story about a theme park in which the android attractions--who are designed to be fucked and killed--rise up against their creators. The series, which premiered Sunday evening, is science fiction, combined with throwback 1880s Americana period pastiche, and boasts a bordello filled with beautiful, enthusiastic robot whores who will toss back whiskey and slap your face during a threesome. In the original 1978 movie, there is a distinct divide between the robots' intelligence and ours, but the speculative technology that animates the story has made significant strides since Crichton's time. Today, we're closer than ever to being able to buy or rent the company of artificially intelligent machines, and ones we might believe could love us back. Sexual product technology has made some interesting progress in 2016.