And Finally...

“Devices like this are like walking down routes you usually drive. You discover new things along the way that you had never seen before. Even though it gets you to the same place, orgasm, even though it works off of each person’s rhythms and mood, even though that’s all the same, the beauty of the device is that you notice new and wonderful things.” The speaker of these words is Jaime Martínez, a man from Madrid who is trying out a male sex toy for the first time. He took the latest advancement in sexual satisfaction out for a drive: an artificial intelligence-equipped masturbator. Gadgets like the Lelo F1S V3, to name one example, incorporate AI and augmented reality into their stroke. They’re not very different, in principle, from other, more established mechanisms: the penis is inserted into a silicone-lined cylindrical device, grooved for one’s pleasure and to simulate penetration. It is accompanied (and this is where the novelty comes in) by different vibrations. The F1S V3 can be used in analogue mode — unconnected to a smart phone — and has eight settings with eight different speeds. Call it a Formula 1 car in the race to orgasm. “You’re still jacking off, but this is no normal jack-off,” says Martínez.