Job Interview at a Sex-Tech Startup

I arrived a little early for the interview in order to get a feel for the surroundings. The company was supposedly a startup but it had already taken over several of the floors of the new business center in town. The place was foreign territory for me, I had finished my postgraduate at a different uni, in a different city but my final paper was very relevant for this particular company. It was based on the joint topics of AI and sex.

The CEO, Joanna Morley met me at the reception and escorted me upstairs to the interview room. She was in her 40s and looked just as poised and as elegant as in her Ted talks. The woman was already a huge role model for me, though I knew it was probably best not to say in case it looked like fawning. As I stood in the elevator beside her, I took the chance to check her out up close, such a nice cut of suit, such a crisp, well fitting blouse. This is how I wanted to be when I reached middle age.

She led me to her office and signaled for me to take a seat, it was a small utilitarian room full of the kind of organized clutter so typical of academics. The blinds were held up on the window sill by ringed binders and cardboard folders. This was a women who had come from the same world as me and had excelled in it.

"So Annabelle, I imagine you'll have a better idea than most about what we do here, but I am also sure you've heard some of the rumors too," she said, "I would like to describe the company in my own words, just so we are completely clear."

There was something about her manner that oozed confidence and competence.

"Much like your own research, our organization has been measuring and examining the neurological affects of sexual arousal, mapping the outputs and then training a deep learning model with the results. The difference is we have been doing it at a vastly larger scale with significantly more resources. To the point were we have developed - well really quite a powerful model. Our own neural network essentially."

I cut in, "That's wonderful, I would be absolutely fascinated to see the results, my research brought up so many aberrations and I would just love to see the data."

She smiled, "Perhaps some of what you saw was not an aberration, this new model has produced some brand new insights."

I was intrigued, this was an area of research, few 'real' scientists liked to get into, but the science of sexual desire still held many unanswered questions. And now AI had provided us with powerful new tools to find the answers. We were at the beginning of a new resurgence in the field, not seen since the days of Alfred Kinsey. I felt very lucky to be at the heart of it now.

"Are you able to share your findings," I asked.

'well after years of measurement from subjects in all different states of arousal - a process that, I have to say, has painted this company in infamy - we've been able to isolate a kind of signal. It's something transmitted though all the senses, sight, sound, touch - smell even - but the end result is the same. A common kind of pattern, one that varies from individual to individual but with certain characteristics which seem almost universal'.

"I remember seeing patterns like that, but I could never pin them down."

"Well that's what impressed me about you, its incredibly hard to do. The AI needs to be very advanced to learn and, of course, extracting enough data is very difficult. The stories I could tell you about what goes on behind some of these doors. Its been a journey I can tell you. However we can now recreate the same pattern in our own software and use it to reliably stimulate arousal on any individual. That part is relatively simple, just stream the pattern in the form of a pulse. Essentially we have built a kind of electronic aphrodisiac. Its quite hard to describe, but it is extremely powerful."

"That is fascinating," I said, "I'd love to see it in action"

"Well, of course, I expect you would - but first, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Uh sure," I said

"You'll need to get used to personal questions working here," she leaned forward into a kind of whisper, "what's the most aroused you have ever been, cast your mind back to the moment you were at your most horny, the most 'turned on' in your entire life."

"Goodness, that's a tricky one," I said, "it wouldn't have been during an orgasm, that's for sure."

She smiled, "ha, no, an orgasm is rarely at the peak, a fairly common misunderstanding. If you were to draw a bell curve of arousal, you could draw a line through the middle, if you happen to be one of the lucky ones who actually 'can' orgasm, then it could happen anytime really during that peak. But that's not the full story, as you probably know. Have you ever been so aroused, that you simply can't help yourself. A lot of people have a story like that, usually in their early years. Some circumstance where you were too turned on to function correctly. Terrible time to make decision, so easy to make a late night calls to your ex."

"The science of the booty call," I laughed.

In truth I have felt that way many times, alone in my bedroom bouncing off the walls. Over many lonely nights but sometimes also during the day, I remember the year at Uni I was obsessed with my lecturer, Dr Buchanan. I would put on my shortest summer dress during lectures and sit at the front, I just loved drawing in his admiring glances as he talked to the entire room. He had such mischievous eyes and was a brilliant flirt but was unfortunately married. Still one time after class, we had a conversation so intense, the mutual desire was just palpable. I remember rushing to the toilets after I left the room just to bring myself off, I was so aroused - it took seconds.

"I can picture a time," I said

"Right, good, I wont ask you about it, instead cast your mind back to how you felt then, how in control you were."

"Not very," if Dr Buchanan had wanted to, I thought, he could have had me right there on that desk. I wouldn't have cared if the door was unlocked.

"This is what we urgently need to investigate at the moment, and thankfully now we have a tool which can make you feel that way again almost instantly."

"Can I see it," I asked.

"I have one in my desk I can show you, but I am really not supposed to."

"You're the CEO!" I laughed

"True, but at this moment in time this tool might be too dangerous even for me," her tone was not as droll as it might have been as she opened up the the bottom drawer. Out of which she pulled, simply an old iPhone with a cable attached, it split in two like old fashioned wired earphones but instead of buds there was small metal cylinders attached to each wire. Like two small silver tubular bells.

"This is it," she said, "Doesn't look like much, does it."

"The power is in the software not the hardware, I suppose."

"And the software has now been completely locked down since the last iteration. I don't mind saying it has raised a lot of moral quandaries and since the lockdown, all of us have been treading water, until we figure out what to do."

"Did something happen?" I asked.

"Well, the whole company has been playing far too fast and loose with this technology. Its my fault really, I have been presiding over a culture here which up to now has valued only experimentation and fun. Imagine, if in the early days of dynamite, the pioneers throwing sticks at each other, smoking cigarettes around the factory, that sort of thing. But then, yes something did happen. Last week we had an incident in the canteen. Many of our staff had this app on their own phone, nothing unusual in that, we need to try out our own products right. But when the latest iteration came out. Some of the lab team were playing with it over lunch, then.. the way they ended up, in front of half the team. It was pretty embarrassing for them and trust me, people around here don't get embarrassed too easily."

I was shocked but also intrigued. Just how powerful was this thing?

She lifted up the phone and opened an app, it had a simple interface with a single number, and a slider around it in the shape of a clock.

"All you need to do for this to work is move the dial around to the setting you want and then hold on to these metal bars - it has a strength setting from 1 to 10, but its not as simple as that. We have found it very hard to graduate it."

"Can I try it now?" I asked, "Just at the lowest setting, "I promise to behave!"

It was being quite forward, I admit, but I was genuinely fascinated. Besides I felt fairly certain I could control myself in a strange office in front of the one woman in the world I wanted to impress the most.

"I'll admit that you do need to try it to understand it and if I am offering you this job, you need to know what you are getting into, but remember what I said about control!"

She brought the phone around to my side of the desk, each little tubular bell dangling below.

"I will stick to the lowest setting only and only switch it on for a few seconds, but even then, I warn you, this is still pretty strong for most people. Now if you will, grab each bar and hold them in your palms."

I held one in each hand, it felt a little like a seance. My hands were shaking, I was excited and a little nervous.

"Ready?" Joanna asked.

"Hit me," I said.

How to describe what happened next. It's quite difficult because 'so much' happened and so quickly. I will try and explain how I felt as it happened, but a lot of it may sound a little crazy. That's part of the problem. You do go a little crazy.

First of all, I suddenly became wholly aware of my own body. Not just my arms or my legs, but every part of my body. Toes, toenails, the spaces between the toes, my fingers, the air around my hands and forearms, every single cell of me seemed to just light up in a massive sensory awakening, I could feel the air brushing against all of the tiny hairs of any exposed patch of me. The back of my neck, god it felt wonderful. I was conscious of every inch of me where my body touched my clothes. I was conscious of it all.

Every part of me felt charged, I hadn't even started to think about my torso, my breasts, my.. my god I couldn't even begin to think about what was between my thighs. I had to block it out. Every object that I touched suddenly felt sensuous, like some inanimate new lover, the chair beneath me, groped my butt, the desk caressed my elbows, even the cold metal bars felt stiff and charged within my palms. It was improper. Like I had just walked into an orgy and become quickly engulfed by it.

"What - on - earth," I groaned as little pulses of pleasure started rippling through my body. I needed to touch myself. Just to touch my own body, anywhere. Still desperately trying not to think about between my legs, I made do by running my fingers on my neck, the side of my face then my own arms, everything I touched felt electric, sending little waves of pleasure across my body.

So enraptured I was in the world of touch, I realized I had my eyes clenched shut, my senses now were on overload, I was not sure I could handle them all at once.

As I tentatively lifted my eyelids, I saw the figure of Joanna beside me. I could feel my own body, almost independent from me, suddenly becoming aware of another physical being in the room. In my heightened state, I was focused in on just her waist at my eye level. The beautiful textured material of her skirt wrapped around the line of her hips. I needed to touch it, to untuck her blouse. As I lifted my gaze up her body, I could feel myself craving for each inch of her. I wanted dearly to undress her and to free her, clothing was suddenly the enemy.

Everything had become Instagram focus, Joanna looked like an utter sex bomb, her soft warm skin, her blouse straining to contain her bosom. I had never desired a woman so much before, never desired 'anyone' as much as at that moment, but when I finally looked at her face, beautiful as it was, her eyes, they were not giving me the signals I wanted. It occurred to me then that she was still rooted back in the real world, the effect was jarring.

"Right that's probably about as long as I should give you," she said.

She pulled the metal bars from me, but it was too late, I was on fire, I wanted her, I was angry that she was not on the same wavelength. The need to touch her, and for her to touch me. The need was so obvious to me, and so urgent. Then I had a mad idea.

I guess THIS was why self control was so important!

I leapt up and snatched the phone back from Joanna's hands, and in an instant I tuned the screen on and ramped up the dial on the interface, I am not sure how high I put it but I saw the numeral go past eight.

I heard some protest from Joanna but ignored it (consent be damned I'm ashamed to say), instead I took each metal bar in my hands and then reached for her head, pressing them flush against each of her cheeks as I leaned in to kiss her like an old Italian mother.

Woooooosh!!

That's the only word I can think of to describe what happened next, I felt like everything went white. My body had now entered a new realm, a realm where only pleasure existed, wave upon wave of sensory delight. The emotions of ten thousand men and woman at their most aroused and sensuous flooded through my nervous system.

Mostly it was touch, my own touch and Joanna's touch. I can't remember what I saw, perhaps my eyes were closed, or perhaps they were open but I was too wrapped up in my other senses.

There were intermittent flashes of vision and pulses of sound. The tearing noises as we pulled apart our neat clothes, the frustrated sighs of desperation to remove buttons or tights. The deep, deep groans of pleasure as we finally gave in to touch. The shriek of pain as we hit the ground. The wetness of her, and of myself, like rivers across our skin.

Riding each others hands whilst still trying to place as much of her warm flesh against my own as possible.

Everything was selfish, I could only think about my own pleasure, and she could only think about hers, however there was such an abundant supply we could both just take what we wanted. We feasted upon each other in a tangled mess of limbs and flesh.

Orgasms ha! I genuinely cannot remember where the arousal stopped and the orgasm began. The bell curve had blown its top. My body and her body undulated together in one unending mutual orgasm.

Only exhaustion finally released us, and as we awakened to reality, we found ourselves naked and bruised, tangled together on a bed of fallen papers and twisted clothing. I was scared to speak. What had I done!

Thankfully Joanna spoke first,

"Well," she said with an awkward smile, "that's the end of the product demonstration."

As we attempted to sort ourselves out and get dressed as best as we could with the tatters of our clothing, Joanna put on a cool air, she was very understanding and did not blame me at all for what I did with the metal bars. In her mind I was not myself, and there was no better way for me to understand the huge moral predicament this technology presented.

In any other company what just happened would be an HR nightmare but this organization was different. They were pioneers, their technology was going to change the world in all kinds of brilliant and terrible ways. It's not something we could reverse, instead we had to test it and to understand it, find a way to make it safe for society.

I found out a few days later, I had got the job. On my first day, they are going to take me around the 'data gathering' rooms. I have to say, I am a little excited. Watch this space and I will let you know what happens.