AI Company Paid Ten People to Masturbate Every Day for a Month. Here Is What the Data Actually Shows.

Key points

• Joi AI, an AI companion platform, paid ten participants $2,000 each to masturbate daily for 28 days in July 2024, using the company's app twice a week.
• Preliminary results from 134 session logs claim stress fell by 25 percent and focus rose by 17 percent, all measured by self-report alone.
• Only six of the ten participants completed the study.
• An independent neuroscientist says the claim that masturbation could help tackle addiction is not supported by the evidence.
• More than 150,000 people applied for the ten spots in the experiment.

Keshav had one new task every morning for twenty-eight days: masturbate, then fill in a log about his mood, energy, focus, and cravings for alcohol, nicotine, and junk food.

The 38-year-old Indonesian trader (he asked us not to use his surname) was one of ten paid "masturbation consultants" recruited by Joi AI, a company that sells subscriptions to AI companions, meaning digital characters that users chat and have erotic interactions with. The experiment ran through July. Participants masturbated every day except Sundays, using the Joi AI app twice a week and their own preferred methods the rest of the time. Each was paid $2,000 for their participation, as first reported by Wired.

What did the study actually find?

Preliminary results, drawn from 134 self-reported session logs, suggest stress levels dropped by 25 percent and focus climbed by 17 percent. The company also reported that self-reported cravings for nicotine, alcohol, junk food, and doomscrolling fell by 44 percent after participants had masturbated.

Joi AI called that craving drop "a genuine breakthrough" and suggested masturbation could be "an unexpected way to tackle addictions."

Neuroscientist Nicole Prause, who studies human sexuality and addiction at a laboratory level, disagrees sharply. "This is a gross overstatement from the evidence they claim to have," she told Wired. She points out that masturbation cannot have a placebo group (participants always know whether they did it), which makes unbiased self-report almost impossible. "Someone saying 'I feel focused' is just that," she said. "There are dozens of cognitive tests that could be used to support a self-report. I do not see any."

Prause is herself running a large laboratory study of male orgasms. She does say masturbation to orgasm is a real method of mood management, and that the biggest effects she sees are reduced anxiety and greater relaxation after climax. But mood improvement is a long way from addiction treatment.

Who took part, and how did they feel?

Finding ten participants was not the problem. Over 150,000 people applied. Five were handpicked by the company; five won public competitions, including one judged by porn performers and one that called for the "most unhinged" fetish. The winner had a balloon fetish.

Keshav used the app's video-call feature, where digital companions performed sexual acts while talking, rendered, in his preferred setting, inside a virtual airplane bathroom. He reported feeling more clear-headed afterwards and said the experience helped him think about how to approach women in real life.

Sex-tech researcher Chloé Locatelli, based at King's College London, also participated because she is running a separate academic study with Joi AI on how people form relationships with AI characters. She found the app only partially effective for arousal. She also raised a concern worth keeping in mind: "If it becomes a bit of a crutch and your only form of sexual exploration, then that's not something I would necessarily encourage."

What should you make of this?

The science here is thin. Six of ten participants completed the study. All results rest on self-report, which researchers consider the weakest form of evidence for anything touching mood or cognition. There is no control group and no independent oversight.

A 2024 review of 22 studies found that regular masturbation tended to link with lower sexual satisfaction in men, though results for women were mixed. Masturbation does have documented benefits: endorphins and oxytocin (hormones that reduce stress) release at orgasm, and better sleep is a commonly reported side effect. Those are real. The addiction-management claim is not proven.

Joi AI's app starts at $3.99 a month, though in-app coins for premium content cost up to $99.99 for 10,000 tokens. The company says its goal is to "solve male loneliness." Whether a self-reported four-week study with six completers moves that needle is a question the data cannot yet answer.

Common questions

Is there any real science behind masturbation improving mood?

Yes, in a limited sense. Orgasm releases endorphins and oxytocin, hormones that lower stress and improve relaxation, and several peer-reviewed studies support this. The much larger claims about reducing addiction cravings are not supported by published evidence.

Is the Joi AI study peer-reviewed?

No. It is an in-house qualitative study, meaning the company designed it, ran it, and analysed the results itself. It has not been reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

Should people be worried about using AI companion apps?

Researcher Chloé Locatelli's caution is worth repeating: AI companions that are highly personalised and always available could, for some users, replace rather than complement real-world intimacy. Using them occasionally is very different from making them your only form of sexual or emotional connection.