AI Startup Says It Will Pay People $2,000 a Month to Masturbate - Yes, Really - Decrypt

The AI companion startup is hiring 10 "masturbation consultants" to test a feature called Daily Guided Masturbation, which uses mood-matched AI voice sessions to guide users through the experience. Participants would document how regular use affects stress, sleep quality, mood, and confidence. The four-week role is open to adults 18 and older in the U.S. and the U.K...

Joi AI is focused on making AI companionship more immersive, personalized, and emotionally responsive," Levin said. "We’re innovating features like Daily Guided Masturbation to make AI a more intuitive part of people’s everyday wellness routines, not just a novelty experience."

Source [2026-05-24; web-archive]

It saddens me to say this, but I don't believe this path will teach us how to preserve our humanity, or to support a human to learn to become a lovable, empathetic, experienced human.

Yes, I do realize that this has been around for a long time, including the scene from film "The 6th Day" of ~2000 with the apartment "virtual girlfriend" I recall even.
And it feels like I get for where this is coming from, and how lone or ill people (e.g. film Shame) may find it relevant, but... I'm deeply saddened because I don't see it helping us nurture our truest, most human selves... and personally, I see it a degradation of a humanity, since I believe in people should focus on love between actual people, search for a true love...

We can do better...

It does not seem like this kind of technology will support a person to have a healthy and long-term happy life...
I'm holding out heartfelt deep hope that us people can discover a better way... to not invest technologies to distant all of us even further with every such invention... but instead to ease the search for partners... or for our true... infinitely magnificent Soulmates instead... since isn't it the purpose... to finally find a miracle... to be a miracle for them, too... and both create a universe...