“Men will continue to choose Autoblow because it is the best at automatically stroking their penises”

“What is the perfect blowjob?“ That question plays an important role whenever Brian Sloan sets out to develop a new Autoblow product. Thankfully, there are literally years’ worth of video reference material on the internet. So Sloan had a team of machine learning specialists parse a total of 6000 minutes of video content – that is the equivalent of more than four days of non-stop porn consumption. The result of all this data analysis was then put to good use in the development of the Autoblow A.I. Brian tells us how this unusual approach will create new added value for the users and what other features the latest version of Autoblow has to offer.

Brian, you recently started a crowdfunding campaign for the next generation of the Autoblow masturbator. Could you give us a short overview of what your backers can look forward to?
Brian Sloan: Backers to the Autoblow A.I. campaign will receive a blowjob whenever they want one wherever they are, without needing another human being to give it to them. The product recreates the gliding action that occurs with a hand and mouth during a blowjob and it does so in a way that is authentic. We don’t just say it re-creates the actions from real blowjobs, we actually discovered, using machine learning, what happens during blowjobs, and then we programmed those actions into our machine.

Your new product is called Autoblow A.I. How exactly does the artificial intelligence part of the masturbator work?
We manually ingested data from 6000 minutes of blowjob videos and used machine learning to discover the most common movements of the mouth on the penis. We found the 16 most used mouth movements and then replicated those 16 movements into 10 modes on the machine. Importantly we found pauses to be an integral part of blowjobs so some of the machine’s modes include periods of no activity. We also have a special mode that puts together blowjob actions in different ways every time the mode is selected so that men needn’t suffer the same blowjob twice.

Many new sex toys are connected to the internet which offers advantages like connectivity, updates or control via phone. Why did you opt to keep the Autoblow A.I. offline?
There are many reasons I chose to keep Autoblow A.I. offline. I think only one key factor influences purchasing decisions: how the product makes the customer feel. I thought by focusing on that one key aspect, I could deliver big with a huge improvement that causes sensations unavailable from any competing product.

Also, only small minority of customers request connectivity, so it is wasteful of my resources to implement it in a product where only 5-10% of our customers would use it. What they want is that a product feels good and works well, every time they turn it on. Read reviews of any internet connected sex toy company’s products and you will find many people having connectivity or other technical problems. People do not want to troubleshoot their masturbator.

Finally, several companies have been sued for privacy related issues. Internet connectivity opens companies up to lawsuits and hackers, neither of which are very fun. In the end I feel connectivity adds cost and risk but does not equal a sales benefit greater than the cost of its implementation.

What changed in terms of the exterior design of the product when compared with the previous version? Does it offer a different feeling than the Autoblow 2?
The entire product is new. It is now controlled by buttons that can change the modes and speeds and instead of using spring loaded beaded arms to grab the sleeve, we now use a newly designed gripper and sleeve that causes more friction on user’s penises. The grip is now much tighter, and the way it strokes feels much more human-like. It is quieter as well.

It seems that masturbators for men are becoming a more and more popular category. What is your explanation for this development?
There are more electronic and non-electronic products, and the reasons are different. For the non-mechanical products, the end of Fleshlight’s US patent resulted in a lot of new copycat products hitting the market.

For electronic male products, some agile younger companies are entering the space and have the ability to build quality hardware whereas the incumbent companies produce mostly gimmicks. Customers are happy that they can finally buy gadgets instead of gimmicks and as a result the overall market has more potential customers. As more smaller companies build better products, more men start to know that such things are available and then they in turn post online about their experiences and the market grows even more.

Do you see any trends within this category that will shape the future of this product category?
Costs for powerful microprocessors are getting lower which will allow more advanced functionality. But as for trends, no. The leaders in “high quality male sex toys” have very different ideas about how to stimulate the penis and what men want, and that’s probably a good thing because different men will prefer different types of stimulation.
I am concerned only with stroking. Some companies are concerned with suction, and others with intensive vibration. I think since men are all stimulated differently it’s a good thing companies are taking different directions on this.

The market for masturbators is getting more crowded. Why should the consumers choose your product?
Just because there are more male products doesn’t mean there are more good male products. Men will continue to choose Autoblow because it is the best at automatically stroking their penises and it is the product they know about because they’ve seen it online. As long as we maintain our advantages of internet marketing and of mechanical function, men will know one way or the other that there is only one serious product that automatically strokes and feels real.

Some men are tricked by copycat products of the Autoblow but after they purchase those, we know that they often later come to us to buy the real thing.

You managed to keep interest in the previous Autoblow high by creating promotions like the Vagina Beauty contest and other campaigns. Will we see more activities of this kind in the future as well?
Yes. When we launch the Autoblow A.I. I will release a short documentary about the people and technology behind the product. Plus, I already have some marketing concepts I’m planning for the future.

Where should retailers turn to if they want to offer the new Autoblow A.I. in their stores?
In Europe, we will release the product with Orion, Eropartner, and Rimba as distributors. All three also currently sell Autoblow 2. In the United States and Australia, we will continue self-distribution of our products. In Canada, most distributors including SD Variations, Landco, BMS, and Pink Cherry will stock it as well.

When will Autoblow A.I. be available on the market and how much will it cost?
We are aiming for a May 2019 launch and it will cost around 215 euros.

The previous Autoblow 2 sold over 200.000 times. Do you expect to surpass this benchmark with the Autoblow A.I.?
Certainly, we will surpass 200,000 units with the new model. Many thousands of retail stores sell the Autoblow 2 and they have already told us they are excited to stock the new Autoblow A.I. as well. We think that the stores that chose not to sell Autoblow 2 will be compelled to stock Autoblow A.I. once they understand its new features and the sensations it can deliver.

Do you already have plans for the time after launch? Promotions? Further products?
After launch, we will focus on several types of mounts so that men can use the product hands-free. Plus, we are planning a much wider variety of sleeve offerings with Autoblow A.I. compared to what we offered with Autoblow 2.

In fact, we scaled down our business to focus almost exclusively on the Autoblow brand rather than coming out with less significant products more frequently. I believe this single-minded focus on one product will be our key to success.