I recently had a chat with a couple of college-going students, and during my interaction, I discovered some fascinating ways students are using AI these days. From helping with research to deploying it as a last-minute cheating tool, the spectrum is wide, but what really piqued my interest was when one of them admitted to occasionally asking ChatGPT to roleplay as her boyfriend. Now, the trend is not exactly brand new or shocking.

There is a whole community out there that finds a sense of companionship or relief in virtual characters that act as a companion, partner, wife, friend, mentor, or whatever it is that they are seeking. The idea is pretty controversial, but it’s here to stay. Joi AI, a company that offers AI companions as a service, recently conducted an experiment to find out if erotic sessions guided by an AI bot can be as rewarding as the usual act of self-pleasuring using conventional means such as pornography or fantasy thoughts.

The company paid $2,000 per month to the ten “Masturbation Consultants” selected from a pool of over 150,000 applicants. The objective of the study was to understand whether self-pleasure can become an AI-guided wellness ritual. According to the company, it can. The company claims the satisfaction levels reported by participants during AI-bot-guided sessions stand at 7.22 on a scale of 1-10, which falls in the same bracket as using toys (7.6), watching porn (7.31), and fantasising about the act or a person (7.27).

Notably, Joi AI claims that “37% of adults are open to AI-guided masturbation, or are already practising it.” Additionally, it claims that stress levels went down by 25% after the AI-guided self-pleasuring sessions, focus went up by 17%, and participants also reported a 19% decline in levels of mental restlessness. Broadly, the company wants to take the taboo out of self-pleasure using a new tool: erotic AI companions.

AI‑lationships are here.

The company goes a step further and claims that after the sessions, not only did the human subjects feel relief and creative inspiration, but they also felt a 44% reduction in cravings for vices like nicotine, alcohol, junk food, and doomscrolling. Now, that’s a tall claim, and there is no scientific evidence to prove that having an orgasm can actually suppress the aforementioned cravings.

Just in case you’re feeling curious, Joi AI lets you access the raunchy AI companion service at $3.99 per month, but more premium services, such as videos depicting an AI companion, will cost tokens purchased with real money. And what exactly is on the plate? “From official digital duplicates of real celebrities to custom characters fresh from your imagination, we make it easy to find love, sex, and romance without the hassle of dating,” says the company.

Joi AI claims the service offers relief from the usual drawbacks of IRL dating. Experts, however, differ. Across a series of conversations with sex therapists and psychologists that I’ve had on this topic in the past couple of years, I’ve sensed caution, disgust, and uncertainty as the main themes. After all, when it starts affecting real social interactions and behavioral patterns, and humans start having babies with their virtual AI partners, something has definitely gone very, very wrong.