The first ‘Westworld’-style sex robots will go on sale next year - and that’s just the start

In the new TV series Westworld, human visitors have sex with lifelike robot hosts in a futuristic pleasure park where people pay to live out sometimes dark fantasies.

But the real thing might happen sooner than we think - according to the co-chair of Goldsmiths upcoming International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots.

David Levy, author of the book Love and Sex With Robots says, ‘The very first primitive sex robots will arrive next year.

‘There’s a company, Abyss Creations, makers of Real Doll, which has been working on an electronic version. It will be a step in the right direction - but it will take at least a decade before sophisticated sex dolls go on sale.

Levy says that in the past year, interest in the subject has skyrocketed - with robotics experts, companies and the general public suddenly open to the idea.

But the big breakthrough won’t be something physical - it’ll be in terms of pillow talk, he says.

Levy says, ‘I predict in my book that the first human-robot marriage will happen by 2050. If you’re going to have a relationship with an entity, you need to be able to have a decent conversation with it.

‘The barrier is human-computer conversation. At present, robots don’t understand enough of what you say.’

The breakthrough point is likely to be when celebrities start to have sex with the dolls, says Levy.

‘There will be psychological barriers initially,’ he says. Once it becomes widely seen to be normal, there will be a tipping point.

‘That’s likely to be when there’s interviews with people who have had experiences with robots - when somebody like Tom Cruise goes on the record and says, ‘I had sex with a robot,’ the whole world will notice.’