Joi AI masturbation consultants were recruited through a May social-media campaign that offered 10 people $2,000 per month to test the company’s Daily Guided Masturbation feature. Six participants ultimately completed the 28-day in-house project, according to WIRED, leaving the company with a small set of self-reported logs rather than clinical evidence for its wellness claims.
Joi AI announced the hiring effort on X on May 18, 2026. The company said the consultants would test the feature and document effects on stress, sleep and mood. Business Insider later reported that Joi AI described the work as a four-week product-testing role involving audio-guided sessions and short weekly reports.
The later study ran through July, WIRED reported. The 10 recruits were instructed to masturbate daily except Sundays, use Joi AI’s digital companions twice a week, and use their own preferred methods on the other days. Before and after sessions, they logged mood, energy, cravings for various vices and procrastination.
What did Joi AI’s masturbation consultant test find?
Joi AI’s preliminary analysis covered 134 session reports from the six people who completed the project, according to WIRED. The company reported a 25% reduction in stress and a 17% increase in focus. It also said AI-guided sessions received satisfaction ratings comparable with participants’ other methods, with no significant difference between the approaches.
Those figures are the company’s own analysis of a qualitative product test. Participants knew which method they were using and reported their own outcomes. The project was tied to promotion of Joi AI’s guided-masturbation product, which the AI-companion company presents as part of its wellness and loneliness-reduction pitch.
Joi AI also reported that participants’ self-assessed cravings for nicotine, alcohol, junk food and doomscrolling fell 44% after masturbation. The company’s report suggested masturbation could help manage addiction-related cravings. That conclusion does not follow from the reported study design.
Nicole Prause, a neuroscientist who studies human sexuality and addiction, told WIRED that Joi AI was overstating what its evidence could show. She said she knew of no scientific evidence that masturbation reduces vulnerability to substance abuse, and criticized the reliance on subjective reports without less bias-prone measures.
Why the results are not a health study
A product test can reveal whether users find a feature engaging, satisfying or technically annoying. It cannot, on these facts, establish that the feature changes stress, focus, sleep or addiction risk beyond participants’ impressions during a short trial.
Joi AI conducted a separate pre-study survey of 2,500 adults, WIRED reported. The company said 75% of respondents masturbated to relieve stress or anxiety and 43% did so before a consequential event such as a date, exam or difficult conversation. Those survey responses describe what respondents said they do; they do not validate the company’s product or its health claims.
The recruitment stunt produced a clean bit of attention for an adult AI company. The more consequential result is less tidy: six completers and 134 self-reported logs may be useful internal feedback, but they are a poor foundation for medical-sounding claims about cravings or addiction.
This story draws on original reporting from WIRED.
