A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Grand Central Tech to record a studio interview for the Funny as Tech podcast on the provocative topic of “Sex Robots and Our Private Data.”

The podcast is now live and available for download on iTunes.

As you can hear on the podcast, there are a lot of fascinating social and ethical issues that are emerging from the powerful combination of technology and sexual desire. This is an area that I began studying and analyzing in my first book, Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age; more recently, I have been tracking and cataloguing some of the new issues on my “Emerging Technology Headlines” page.

Here are just a few of the sex robot-specific headlines that have caught my attention over the last few weeks:

• Engineer, 31, who married his robotic girlfriend to appease his pushy parents is now making customised SEX ROBOTS for millions of bachelors
• March of the sexbots: They talk, they make jokes, have ‘customisable’ breasts – the sex robot is no longer a weird fantasy but a troubling reality
• Sex robot inventor says bots will soon have a ‘moral code’ and become more aroused by people who treat them respectfully
• A third of men and one in five women say they would have sex with a ROBOT, according to German survey
• ‘Interactive’ sex doll breaks down after huge number customers try it out at Austrian electronics fair

For the uninitiated, Funny as Tech is the collaborative brain-child of tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar (@TechEthicist) and comedian Joe Leonardo (@ImJoeLeonardo). Each month, the two host “conversation and comedy for our brave new world!” at the People’s Improv Theater in New York City. You can read my review of the November show by clicking here.