In November, the reality star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian posted a series of images and videos to her social-media accounts, in which she appeared to promote Tesla's new A.I. robot, Optimus. In a video on X, captioned "Meet my new friend," Kardashian is seen engaging with Elon Musk's humanoid golem, which reportedly retails for around thirty thousand dollars, and whose metal torso is inscribed with the Tesla logo. "O.K., hi!" she says perkily, off camera, as she waves her manicured fingers just within frame--a motion that is immediately echoed by the robot. "Can you do this: 'I love you'?" she asks next, forming a half heart with her hand, proffering it to the robot to urge him to complete the shape, and gasping in awe as he eagerly complies. But Optimus, who in the video seems more than happy to be at his mistress's beck and call, appears less subservient in a series of pictures in which Kardashian, wearing spike heels and lingerie, poses beside him and a gold Tesla Cybercab.

If the iconic scene from When Harry Met Sally is anything to go by, sexual encounters are characterised by intense moaning and groaning. But non-verbal communication during sex is key to avoiding'disrupting intimacy', according to a new study. Researchers have discovered that most people believe facial expressions and cues from body language are the best way to enhance the experience. A team, led by scientists from Missouri State University, interviewed 78 participants aged 18 to 69 and included a mix of genders and sexual orientations. Analysis of their responses revealed that effective communication during sexual activities was significantly influenced by the level of trust and comfort felt with a partner.

How to Do It is Slate's sex advice column. Send it to Stoya and Rich here. My husband and I have an awesome, intelligent 14-year-old son who identifies as bisexual. We are totally accepting and supportive of him. He has had a few short-lived crushes on different genders, though he doesn't seem to be particularly interested in dating right now. His internet search histories are pretty benign--mostly video game stuff, and the occasional search for "hot girls" and "boobs."

From'When Harry Met Sally' to'Black Swan', orgasms have been depicted in blockbuster hits for decades. But scientists have taken a new approach to visualise the'Big O' - by enlisting the help of artificial intelligence (AI). The team at LoveHoney used heart-monitors to record 10 volunteers as they climaxed, before using AI to bring the data to life. 'Ever wondered – at the height of climax, at the apex of sexual pleasure, the pique of existence (too far?) – I wonder what my orgasm looks like?' Lovehoney said. 'Well, you have to wonder no more, as alongside Womanizer we have created images of real orgasms using AI.' Scientists have taken a new approach to visualise the'Big O' - by enlisting the help of artificial intelligence (AI) Lovehoney and Womanizer set out to visualise the orgasm, having found that it had never successfully been put into an image.

Sex is probably the last thing on your mind when thinking of Tesla. But Elon Musk's firm has shared a very saucy video of its seat-testing robot, with Twitter users joking that the'chair is about to have an orgasm'. New footage of Tesla's bionic red arm shows a seat being repeatedly pressed down in time with the 2003 hit Satisfaction by Benny Benassi and The Biz. As the seat bounces, Tesla explained that it underwent 50,000 'ingress/egress cycles' - the equivalent to a vehicle's lifetime use. Even still, just one thing was on the minds of Twitter users, and it wasn't the standard of Tesla's quality tests.

How to Do It is Slate's sex advice column. Send it to Stoya and Rich here. Like most sexually healthy couples, my boyfriend and I consume pornography. But I'm worried about the sorts of stuff my boyfriend likes. He prefers pornographic games to videos or pictures; he says they're "more interactive."

At the tech world's glitziest gala, the massive Consumer Electronics Showcase held in Las Vegas this week, you could find rows of devices only for women: breast pumps, fertility trackers, breast massagers, skin care gizmos. This embrace of women's health as a category for tech innovation is a huge shift from just a few years ago, when it was much easier to find a scantily clad "booth babe" hired to hawk some random fitness tracker than it was to find anything geared toward women as consumers--unless it was a pink version of a mainstream gadget. But while women's skin care, fertility, and general health have come to represent entire categories for gadget makers, women's pleasure is apparently still too taboo. A robotic vibrator, developed in consultation with Oregon State University's robotics department, was initially accepted into the show and given an innovation award, only to later be excluded because it didn't fit into an existing product category, according the Consumer Technology Association, which runs CES. The device was also called "immoral" and "profane," according to statements CTA made to the press.

A person's idea of what an orgasm looks like may depend on where they live. Researchers have found Western and Eastern cultures generally agree on what our face looks like when we're in pain. But when it comes to what our faces look like during an orgasm, that's where the two cultures differ. University of Glasgow researchers created a computer program that could mimic a variety of facial expressions. For the simulated faces, the researchers used a core set of 42 movements.

They were once seen as a bizarre fetish, but it seems that sex dolls are now so widely in demand that they could be going into mass production. Samantha, an eerily realistic sex bot, is currently on sale in London, but could soon be available for the masses. The robot's designer claims that he is looking to mass produce the head for Samantha in Wales in a bid to keep up with growing demands. They were once seen as a bizarre fetish, but it seems that sex dolls are now so widely in demand that they could be going into mass production. 'Silicon Samantha' is covered in sensors that respond to human touch and can switch between'family' and'sexy' mode.

If you could construct a sexual partner that was faithful, beautiful, and responsive to your every wish, would you? It's a question Aimee van Wynsberghe, co-founder of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics, thinks a lot about. In July 2017, she and fellow ethicist Noel Sharkey published a report (pdf), Our Sexual Future with Robots, that delved into the state of the robot sex industry and its future. Quartz met van Wynsberghe, a professor of robotics and ethics at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, on a trip to London in a busy café, just before she headed to the Science Museum's Robots exhibition, to discuss how close humanity is to sex and even love with robots, and the risks involved. The interview is edited and condensed for clarity. Quartz: Your report mainly deals with "precursors" to sex robots. How are the dolls and devices that already exist connected to possible robots of the future?