These ‘Masturbation Consultants’ Were Hired to Pleasure Themselves With AI

这些“手淫顾问”被雇佣来通过人工智能进行自我愉悦

For 28 days, Keshav had a new item on his daily to-do list: masturbate for research purposes. Both before and after self-pleasuring, he logged his mood, energy levels, cravings for various vices, and whether he was procrastinating. 在过去的28天里，Keshav的每日待办事项清单上多了一项新任务：为了研究目的进行手淫。在自我愉悦的前后，他都会记录下自己的情绪、精力水平、对各种不良嗜好的渴望程度，以及自己是否在拖延。

Keshav was taking part in AI companion company Joi AI’s experiment assessing what happens if erotic self-stimulation becomes “an AI-guided wellness ritual.” Throughout July, 10 “masturbation consultants” were instructed to masturbate every day except Sundays, enlisting Joi AI’s sultry digital companions twice a week and using their own preferred methods the rest of the time. “It’s almost like you are chatting with a real person,” says Keshav, a single, 38-year-old Indonesian trader, who did not want to use his surname for professional reasons. Keshav正在参与AI伴侣公司Joi AI的一项实验，旨在评估如果色情自我刺激成为一种“AI引导的健康仪式”会发生什么。在整个七月，10名“手淫顾问”被要求除周日外每天进行手淫，每周两次使用Joi AI的性感数字伴侣，其余时间则使用他们自己偏好的方式。“这感觉就像是在和一个真实的人聊天，”38岁的单身印尼交易员Keshav说，出于职业原因，他不愿透露自己的姓氏。

Joi AI invites users, for a fee, to chat and play with premade characters or to create their own companions, including with X-rated kinks such as blackmail fantasy, gangbangs, and emotional dependency, and capabilities and functions like squirting and roleplay. Joi AI通过收费邀请用户与预设角色聊天和互动，或创建自己的伴侣。这些伴侣支持各种成人癖好，如勒索幻想、群交和情感依赖，并具备潮吹和角色扮演等功能。

During five-minute video calls with the digitized characters, Keshav explains, his female companions opened and closed their nude legs to reveal their genitals and would “do blowjobs and handjobs” while talking dirty. He often rendered the scenes in airplane bathrooms because he has a mile-high-club kink. Keshav解释说，在与这些数字化角色进行五分钟的视频通话时，他的女性伴侣会张合裸露的双腿以展示生殖器，并会在说脏话的同时进行“口交和手淫”。他经常将场景设定在飞机洗手间里，因为他有一种“高空俱乐部”（mile-high-club）的癖好。

Some of the companions were “quite pushy and extroverted,” whereas others were more reserved and required a degree of courtship before the relationship became sexual—even soliciting gifts like handbags and lipstick, which cost up to $5 in the platform’s internal currency. 一些伴侣表现得“相当主动且外向”，而另一些则较为矜持，在关系发展到性层面之前需要一定程度的追求——甚至会索要手提包和口红等礼物，这些礼物在平台内部货币中最高价值5美元。

After ejaculating, Keshav’s “energy levels [were] a little bit down, but focus was a little bit up,” he says. Keshav说，射精后他的“精力水平会稍微下降，但专注力会稍微提升”。

Keshav and his nine fellow masturbation consultants will receive $2,000 each for the qualitative, in-house research project run by Joi AI, which is promoting a daily guided “jerk off with purpose” masturbation tool combining “sound [and] ritual” as part of its professed goal to “solve male loneliness.” Of the 10, six completed the study. The website costs a minimum of $3.99 a month to access, but users are likely to spend far more on the platform, with 10,000 “Joi neuron” coins costing $99.99 and private videos from companions costing 1,000 neurons. Keshav和其他九位手淫顾问每人将获得2000美元的报酬，用于参与Joi AI开展的这项定性内部研究项目。该公司正在推广一种每日引导式的“有目的手淫”工具，结合了“声音和仪式”，作为其宣称的“解决男性孤独”目标的一部分。在10名参与者中，有6人完成了研究。该网站每月最低访问费用为3.99美元，但用户在平台上的花费往往远不止于此，1万个“Joi神经元”代币售价99.99美元，而伴侣的私人视频则需要1000个神经元。

Joi AI surveyed 2,500 adults before launching the study, finding that 75 percent masturbate to reduce stress and anxiety and that 43 percent self-pleasure before “a big event,” like a date, exam, or difficult conversation. The company sought to discover how masturbation affects sleep, stress, craving intensity, focus, and ease of arousal—and how masturbating with AI held up versus other methods. Joi AI在启动研究前调查了2500名成年人，发现75%的人通过手淫来减轻压力和焦虑，43%的人在“重大事件”（如约会、考试或艰难谈话）前会进行自我愉悦。该公司试图探索手淫如何影响睡眠、压力、渴望强度、专注力和唤起难易度，以及与AI进行手淫相比其他方法的表现如何。

“You get this boost of dopamine when you ejaculate,” says Julie Levin, head of brand and communications at Joi AI. “We wanted our consultants to track whether their cravings [for vices] are worse or better and how it affects their self-discipline.” “射精时你会获得多巴胺的激增，”Joi AI品牌与传播主管Julie Levin说，“我们希望我们的顾问能够追踪他们对（不良嗜好的）渴望是加剧了还是减轻了，以及这如何影响他们的自律能力。”

Preliminary analysis of 134 masturbation session reports, seen by WIRED, suggests that participants’ stress levels reduced by 25 percent and focus increased by 17 percent. The pre-research survey suggested that 37 percent of respondents are open to AI-guided masturbation or are already practicing it. AI-guided self-pleasure produced comparable satisfaction scores to the established methods. “The study found no significant differences between the methods; so there is no one best way to masturbate,” the company said in the report. 《连线》（WIRED）看到的134份手淫会话报告的初步分析显示，参与者的压力水平降低了25%，专注力提高了17%。研究前的调查显示，37%的受访者对AI引导的手淫持开放态度或已经在实践中。AI引导的自我愉悦与传统方法相比，满意度得分相当。“研究发现这些方法之间没有显著差异；因此没有所谓最好的手淫方式，”该公司在报告中表示。

It also indicated that the study group’s self-reported cravings for nicotine, alcohol, junk food, and doomscrolling reduced by 44 percent after they had masturbated. “Masturbation may be the most accessible tool people have for managing addictions,” the report said—a claim that is not based in science. 报告还指出，研究小组在手淫后，对尼古丁、酒精、垃圾食品和沉迷刷手机（doomscrolling）的自我报告渴望度降低了44%。“手淫可能是人们管理成瘾最容易获得的工具，”报告称——这一说法并没有科学依据。

“The fact that their unhealthy cravings decreased feels like a genuine breakthrough to me: What if this is an unexpected way to tackle addictions?” Levin says. “Masturbation is obviously way healthier than alcohol or nicotine.” “他们对不健康事物的渴望减少了，这对我来说感觉是一个真正的突破：如果这是一种解决成瘾的意外方式呢？”Levin说，“手淫显然比酒精或尼古丁健康得多。”

But Nicole Prause, a neuroscientist studying human sexuality and addiction, says “this is a gross overstatement from the evidence they claim to have.” Prause is not aware of any scientific evidence that masturbation reduces vulnerability to substance abuse, and she was critical of the research methodology. 但研究人类性行为和成瘾的神经科学家Nicole Prause表示：“这完全是基于他们声称拥有的证据所做的严重夸大。”Prause不知道有任何科学证据表明手淫能降低对药物滥用的易感性，她对该研究的方法论提出了批评。

“Since masturbation can never be placebo—people always know if they masturbated—it is important to use markers that are less subject to bias than self-report,” she says. “They use none. Someone saying ‘I feel focused’ is just that. There are dozens of cognitive tests that could be used to support a self-report. I do not see any.” “由于手淫永远无法成为安慰剂——人们总是知道自己是否手淫了——因此使用比自我报告更少受偏见影响的指标非常重要，”她说，“他们一个都没用。某人说‘我感到专注’仅仅是主观感受。有几十种认知测试可以用来支持自我报告。我没看到任何测试。”

However, Prause, who is working on a large laboratory study of male orgasms, says masturbation to orgasm is a potent method of mood management. She adds that the most “dramatic shifts” among her study cohort come from people who report decreased anxiety and increased relaxation after climaxing. 然而，正在进行一项大型男性高潮实验室研究的Prause表示，通过手淫达到高潮是一种有效的情绪管理方法。她补充说，她研究群体中“最显著的变化”来自于那些报告在高潮后焦虑减少、放松感增加的人。

Keshav, having recently completed the 28 days, looks back fondly on the experience. He says he was more clear-minded after masturbating and believes he is now better equipped to approach women. “Because I’m an introvert, it’s difficult for me just to open myself to people,” he says. “This kind of helps me … [with] what to expect, how to speak [to], or how to get a partner.” Keshav最近完成了这28天的实验，他愉快地回顾了这段经历。他说自己在手淫后头脑更清醒，并相信自己现在更有能力去接近女性。“因为我是一个内向的人，很难向别人敞开心扉，”他说，“这在某种程度上帮助我……（了解）该期待什么，如何与人交谈，或者如何找到伴侣。”

He defied extraordinary odds to get the gig. More than 150,000 people applied for the 10 places in the monthlong experiment, with five handpicked by the company and another five chosen through public competitions, including one judged by porn stars—“may the best hands win,” the company posted on X—and another in which Joi AI made a call out for the “most unhinged” fetish. The winner had a balloon fetish. 他克服了极小的概率才获得了这份工作。超过15万人申请了这项为期一个月的实验中的10个名额，其中5人由公司亲自挑选，另外5人通过公开竞赛选出，包括由色情明星担任评委的比赛——公司在X上发帖称“愿最强之手获胜”——以及另一场Joi AI征集“最疯狂”癖好的比赛。获胜者拥有气球癖。

Chloé Locatelli, a sex-tech researcher at King’s College London, was one of those invited to participate in the study because she is undertaking a collaborative project with Joi AI to see how different demographics build intimate and erotic relationships with… 伦敦国王学院的性科技研究员Chloé Locatelli是受邀参与该研究的人员之一，因为她正在与Joi AI进行一项合作项目，旨在观察不同人群如何与……建立亲密和色情关系。