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.

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.

“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.”

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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.

“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.”

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.