2024 is drawing to a close, marking another big year for the ever-expanding world of sextech.
There have been positive trends (such as devices focused on ‘alternative’ erogenous zones), negative trends (such as the need for nonconsensual deepfake porn crackdowns), plus a sprinkling of the bizarre (we’re looking at you, ‘dildo you suck off to operate a computer’).
Passthrough – seeing digital visuals among your ‘real world’ surroundings while you wear a VR headset – took another big stride forward in the VR porn world in 2024.
Once again, it was VR porn site SexLikeReal (SLR) helping push passthrough innovations, as VR porn in general swelled its share of the online porn industry. The site launched passthrough functionality for live porn camming – traditionally far trickier to pull off than passthrough for recorded videos – as well as using AI to roll out passthrough wider in its library.
SLR developed an AI video algorithm that can make its existing VR porn videos passthrough videos, without the need for them to be filmed with a green screen (or chroma) background. This technology raises the prospect of making virtually any VR porn video a passthrough video.
Other companies helped with the VR shunt. After Apple Vision Pro headset users complained that their device wasn’t letting them watch some VR porn videos, VR porn platform VirtualRealPorn created spatial VR porn scenes designed for use with the high-end headset.
The new generation of VR headsets’ impressive passthrough capabilities are making it all possible, and not just the super-expensive Apple one. This year Meta released the new Meta Quest 3S headset, lauded for its passthrough quality. Priced at $299, it’s likely to make VR porn within reach for far more people.
AI technology is developing at a rate far quicker than any changes in technology legislation and regulation can, as demonstrated by the worrying rise of nonconsensual deepfake porn. How should AI be regulated, to ensure that criminal creeps can’t get away with that kind of stuff and that AI is generally used to help humans rather than hinder or harass them?
This year a group of sex-adjacent industry professionals, academics and advocates got together to voice concern about how AI regulation discussions were, as they saw it, excluding sex-positive voices. The Digital Intimacy Coalition (should we call it the DIC?) released an open letter to EU regulators, after the European Commission launched the world’s first comprehensive AI law, demanding to be involved in future discussions.
The DIC’s worries included potential crackdowns on sexual content in the AI sphere impinging on legitimate sex and sex-adjacent work, such as chatbots shutting down erotic chat or consensual deepfake porn being limited by laws aimed at nefarious use.
Erotica writer Ana Ornelas and lawyer Alessandro Polidoro, both members of the DIC, spoke to SEXTECHGUIDE about further AI regulation concerns, such as the definition of porn and erotica, positive use of deepfakes, and protecting performers’ work.
If 2023 was the year deepfakes spread the nefarious porn potential of AI around the world, with celebrities and non-celebs alike finding themselves nonconsensual subjects, 2024 was the year the crackdown properly began.
If we’re judging purely on iron fist strength, South Korea led the way. Appalled by the ease at which people shared realistic nonconsensual deepfake porn on messaging apps, authorities in the country made watching any kind of deepfake porn illegal. Deepfake porn creators can be sentenced to years in jail, with a special South Korean police crackdown set to continue until March 2025.
A bill that would criminalize sharing nonconsensual deepfake porn was put forward in the US, while the UK and US launched a joint child safety group to crack down on harmful generative AI.
Prisons are yet to be filled with deepfake porn creator creeps, but results have been seen more quickly in online search crackdowns. Google changed its search functionality so deepfake porn results are far more difficult to find, with news articles about the negative effects of deepfakes shown more prominently. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Bing became the latest tech platform to team up with Stop Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse (StopNCII), to make removing potentially abusive, noncensensual deepfakes easier.
As legislation matures, will 2025 be the year that nonconsensual deepfake porn was properly dealt with, or just pushed to even darker corners of the internet?
Would you buy a camera that created a nude image of anyone you took a photograph of? Or, would you try and get the people who made it arrested?
The makers of Nuca, a 3D printed digital camera that had this AI capability, dodged both of these possibilities by declaring their product an art project and not putting it on sale to the general public, or indeed anyone else. German artist Mathias Vef and designer Benedikt Groß created the ‘point and strip’ camera, equipped with a generative AI system based on the Stable Diffusion ‘text to image’ AI generator.
The full-frontal results weren’t far from photo-realistic and tended to be somewhat flattering, including elephantine schlongs, unblemished skin and invariably perky breasts. The makers of the Nuca said that it was only ever used to take photos of people who consented to be nude subjects and was created to encourage discussions about ethics and AI.
They said: “These discussions are not only about the impact of non-consensual imagery, but also about revealing the distorted views of algorithmic bias that AI inherits, setting these perceptions in contrast to the user’s self-image.”
We’d love to announce that 2024 was the year that sex robots could enjoy post-coital debates about global trade tariffs with finally achieved sentience. Alas, one of the sex robot industry’s most prominent figures admitted that properly sophisticated sex robots were still years away.
Matt McMullen is the man behind RealDoll, arguably the best-known sex robot company in the Western world. This year Abyss Creations, the company that makes RealDoll, became part of an acquisition and restructuring. The result was the Realbotix firm becoming a public company and overseeing robot production, focusing on entertainment robots for theme parks rather than sex acts.
RealDolls will continue to be made, but now appear to be a smaller niche of Realbotix’s overall robot development and sales strategy. McMullen admitted to SEXTECHGUIDE that many sex robots are still essentially just robot heads on love dolls.
Speaking of full-body sex robots for home use, McMullen said: “I don’t think the tech is there yet, maintenance requirements and price points [don’t] make sense for us or anyone else. As prices decline and tech evolves, we will move into the home retail market for full-sized robots, but I don’t see that for several years.”
The wait continues.
In 2021 Pornhub began purging huge swathes of videos from the site, following claims that it hosted illegal content including videos or images featuring children. In 2023 MindGeek, which owned Pornhub, attempted an ‘ethics-first’ rebrand and became Aylo. In 2024 the troubles continued for the world’s biggest porn site, this time focused on age verification rules.
As 2024 unfolded, Aylo blocked ‘official’ access to Pornhub and its other porn sites in more and more US states, to the point where it was blocked in over a quarter of all US states. Pornhub said new state laws about age verification for porn site access were impossible for it to comply with, continually saying that age verification should take place at device level rather than on individual sites.
Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia are just some of the sites Pornhub is blocked in now. It is still easy to ‘unofficially’ access the site in these states, however, by using a Virtual Proxy Network (VPN) on your device.
In 2024 Spain rolled out a ‘porn passport’ system, using an app or digital wallet that can verify adult status and grant access to porn sites within the country. In the US, however, more states are adopting or considering tougher age verification rules, and there’s no sign of huge porn sites such as Pornhub relenting and overhauling age verification processes.
Could 2025 be the year Aylo does an age verification U-turn, or the year Pornhub becomes blocked in almost the entirety of the US?
What is the meaning of beauty, in the age of AI? If the appearances of most female AI influencers are anything to go by: massive breasts, skinny waists and a penchant for minuscule bikinis.
Following a rise in the popularity of AI-generated social media influencers, as well as AI girlfriend apps, this year saw the launch of a Miss AI competition, featuring only fully AI-generated entrants.
The event was launched by the World AI Creator Awards (WAICA) in conjunction with the Fanvue online platform (think OnlyFans if everyone on it was AI-generated) and offered a $5,000 prize to the winner (or, presumably, the person or team who used AI to create the winner). Two of the four judges were, naturally, also created by AI.
The backlash was swift, with newspaper columnists and other writers accusing AI models of exaggerating traditional beauty standards and encouraging real women to compare themselves to “perfect” fake women.
It may have come as a mild surprise to many, then, when Miss AI was won by Kenza Layli: a hijab-wearing AI model supposedly from Morocco, who seemed more interested in libraries and spreading awareness about breast cancer than bikinis.
But don’t worry too much, as in second place was Lalina: a French AI model who seemingly impressed judges with her multitude of revealing cleavage photos.
Christmas is coming, so, what do you get for the misogynistic incel man in your life, who is actively looking to replace any need for human romantic relationships and sex?
This year the answer came forth with the development of an AI adult toy marketed with the slogan “replacement of modern women”. The Orifice AI is essentially a penis sleeve sextech device that gives aural feedback in a female voice when you have sex with it.
The box-like device has a silicone ‘sleeve’ running through it, equipped with computer vision depth detection technology that measures how deep you’re thrusting inside it, then sends the data to an AI large language model (LLM) that generates ‘moaning’ noises. You can also talk to the box, and have it reply in a human voice, via the AI LLM.
In principle, it sounds like effective evolution of the penis sleeve sector and an interesting use of AI. However, the ethos behind the Orifice AI isn’t so positive.
The device, we are told, offers “a level of affection that no modern woman is capable of”, and its makers have a history of troubling views. Bryan Mitchell, one of the men behind Orifice AI, told 404 Media:
“The top 20 percent in the [female] gene pool don’t care. Their not caring is genetic warfare. All social action taken against Orifice, all protest, be it in the form of a tweet or article or legislation will be gene warfare.”
Towards the end of 2024, a social media migration started happening, with Bluesky gaining millions of new users while X user numbers slowly shrank. For some, this was in reaction to Elon Musk supposedly turning X even more toxic and extreme in the name of ‘free speech’, with Bluesky, launched by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, offering a different form of extremism: largely liberal.
This was significant for many adult performers and sex workers, as X remains one of the few major global social media platforms that allows porn and other sexual content.
Happily, Bluesky also allows porn and adult content, meaning that it can be used to promote legal sex and sex-adjacent work. Users can choose to hide adult content from their feeds if they desire. Also, while X is phasing out the block function, you can block anyone you want from viewing your profile and posts on Bluesky.
SEXTECHGUIDE created a guide to managing adult content on Bluesky, for those curious about joining this social media migration. (Oh, and don’t forget to follow us on the platform, if you do join.)
Under the strain of the economy, it’s not unusual that more and more adults are being forced to live with their parents, or at least cohabituate with friends. It makes sense that toy companies like Bellesa are capitalizing on making quieter vibrators to offer a sense of enhanced privacy to users.
While brands over the years have claimed to launch “silent” products, our reviews have found quite the opposite, often with the stronger vibrations or suction noises dispelling any claims.
Yet, in 2024, the latest silent devices including Biird’s Namii and the Womanizer Next and Womanizer Vibe have proven that “almost” or “close to” silent tech is good enough!
Of course, it’s hard to find new technology, but it’s perhaps amusing to see Bellesa jump on the bandwagon with its silent range, considering the company, known for being a “female empowerment porn site” was accused of stealing porn from women back in 2017.
That being said, evidently there is a drive for quieter sex toys, and it appears it’s becoming a given in more recent tech.
Now, we have been reporting on penis strokers for a long time, and this year really has felt like a shift in the frequency of devices that are being created and marketed, and even more specifically the addition of AI features , such as the Kiiroo Control, and the upgraded Lovense Solace Pro. 2024 also saw more multi-functional and sensory sextech becoming all the rage. Lovehoney’s Blowmotion has a sound effect option that allows you to listen to female moaning sounds to complement each stroke.
Kiiroo also launched its very own travel-friendly Pocket Stroker.
Whether or not penis strokers have fully overcome the taboo hurdle by wider society is yet to be seen, the industry seems to be continuing to launch a variety of tech to cater to penis owners; just check out our updated roundup of best strokers of 2024 to find your perfect fit.
Sure sex tech has its place in hedonism, but 2024 has established a place for sexual health technologies. With the growing use of AI, we reported on the latest tech supporting vaginal health including smart pelvic floor devices for people struggling with anorgasmia and the development of The Clitique that offers biofeedback for sexual arousal disorders.Penile health tech also got a share of the limelight, from apps and devices to wearable LED light therapy for improving the movement ability of sperm, as well as Calmara’s AI dick pic scanner for STI checks.On the topic of STI apps, iPlaySafe underwent a rebrand, now going by Zults with plans to focus on improving the communication tools to achieve its goal of “changing how people talk about sexual health and reducing STI rates”. Smart STI home kits were also launched by CBD tampon brand Daye. By bringing the tech into the home in an accessible way, the hope is to revolutionize and destigmatize the taboos around sexual health.
There’s still a long way to go when it comes to accessibility considerations across the sex tech industry for people with disabilities or those who are neurodivergent.
Nevertheless, we have found there have been some developments that bring a sense of optimism, particularly when it comes to alternative devices and multi-sensory functions such as audio erotica beneficial for visually impaired people, as well as AI erotica stories and erotic ASMR, to support personalized content for people on the autism spectrum.
Additionally, brands like Hot Octopuss prioritize the needs of disabled people in the creation of their products, ensuring that the devices are accessible for people with mobility impairments, such as the ageing population who are often left out of the conversation around sex and pleasure.
Despite this progress, one of our favorite upcoming inclusive brands, led by disability activist Andrew Gurza and their sister Heather Morrison, who were creating the Bump’n Joystick, unfortunately, cancelled its production, as they were “unable to secure the necessary resources or partners to continue.” We hope 2025 will be a more promising year for this market.
Being a predominately “Western” publication, it’s important to broaden the conversation around sex and technology as this is a growing global market. Last year we spotlit the innovations and limitations that the sex tech industry was facing on the African continent.
This year we wrote about how India’s sex tech market is beginning to break down taboos and empowering intimacy for its population through emerging technologies.
Open conversations about sex have historically been taboo in India, but the widespread use of smartphones—India now has the second-largest number of mobile internet users globally—is helping to shift that narrative.
Mobile apps are giving people easier access to sexual wellness resources, connecting them with therapists, and providing intimacy tools for long-distance relationships. These technologies are making sexual health and education more accessible, particularly for urban, middle-class users.
That said, challenges persist. Conservative cultural norms and outdated obscenity laws continue to block the adoption of more advanced technologies like virtual and augmented reality, which remain largely untapped. Legal grey areas and limited internet access in rural regions also make it difficult to reach marginalized communities.
Despite these barriers, India’s sex tech industry is growing steadily and has the potential to reshape societal attitudes, giving more people the opportunity to explore their sexuality in a healthier, more open way.
Sometimes we don’t need the additional technology when the tech itself is good enough. Yet, this year we saw a couple of clit suckers offering a remote and app option. While this may add a layer of accessibility for users who struggle with mobility pressing buttons, we wonder if the remote aspect might be a little banal for the average clit sucker user.
Particularly for those wanting to use the remote play for partner domination or public use… which can be great for clit and panty vibes, however, lose the momentum when the person has to hold the device in place.
Nevertheless, Lelo’s Enigma Double Sonic and Lovense Tenera both launched this year with interactive remote and app features. Each has its benefits for using the app, for example, using the Lelo app with the device “unlocks two new stimulation patterns not available by just pressing buttons on the vibrator” and on the Lovense Tenera you can sync your toy up with other Lovense products like the Gemini nipple clamps or your partner’s toy.
Not to mention the possibility of interacting with your favorite videos that sync up to your toy, or allowing strangers to control your settings.
And speaking of the Lelo Enigma Double Sonic, this is the first sex tech device to market on the pleasure and stimulation of the A-spot which is located deeper inside the vaginal canal. Most devices are geared towards the G-spot which, for most people, sits just a few inches in on the front of the vaginal wall.
However, the A-spot, also known as the anterior fornix erogenous zone, is located at the inner end of the vaginal canal – situated closer to the cervix meaning it might be harder to reach for most people using just fingers or a penis.
Hence the importance of toys and tools that can assist with deeper penetration and A-spot stimulation. This informed the design of the new device, the longest insertable section length of which is 140 millimetres, and when vibration is included this can offer intense pleasurable sensations.
This year, sex tech turned its focus to alternative erogenous zones, moving beyond traditional pleasure spots. Prostate, nipple, and perineum pleasure took center stage. Lelo’s Hugo 2 delivered precise prostate stimulation, while Lovense’s Gemini clamps brought high-tech control to nipple play. Meanwhile, the MysteryVibe Tenuto 2 highlights the often-overlooked perineum, offering a new dimension of pleasure.
These releases mark a shift in how sex tech explores intimacy, encouraging users to rethink and expand their experiences. By shining a spotlight on these less-talked-about zones, the industry is helping redefine what pleasure can look like.
We contacted the creators behind your favorite sex technologies to see what inspired their products. From commercialism to scientific, as well as developing tech that supports people with accessibility needs. It’s almost a given that much of the industry is being catapulted by artificial intelligence, no matter the driving force.
In typical fashion, porn is often a driving force for changes in technology, not to mention we live in an era where people are increasingly seeking more ways to get off. This year we learnt that queer and feminist porn undergoing a revamp through the process of categorization to undo some of the limiting and heteronormative ways we have created and consumed adult entertainment over the last few decades..
And finally…we just wanted to say thanks for reading! Without you here reading the news, reviews, opinions, deep-dives and everything else, we wouldn’t keep writing them! We’ve published over 140+ articles in 2024, added a Brand Index, been joined by nearly a dozen new contributors, and put some plans underway for more exciting things to come in 2025.
Until then, perhaps you want to check out some of the articles you missed in full, from the list above?