Affection simulated by AI strangely irks sceptics at first (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
air kiss
'affection simulated' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'ai strangely irks sceptics at first' is the wordplay.
'strangely' is an anagram indicator.
'at first' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'sceptics' is 's'.
'irks' with letters rearranged gives 'rkis'.
'ai'+'rkis'+'s'='AIR-KISS'
'by' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for air kiss that I've seen before include "Greeting that's not touching" , "form of greeting" , "contactless transaction" .)