At a time of heightened awareness over the importance of data privacy it seems counter-intuitive that women might be willing to share details of their orgasms with a sex toy that deploys artificial intelligence – but apparently many are.
The success of vibrator start-up Lioness in building a dataset comprised of such intimate information for the greater goal of enhancing female sexual pleasure is only one remarkable insight from a new media outlet that shines a light on how technology is reshaping human life.
Other topics covered by Digital Frontier, which launched last week as a high-end magazine, include a movement to create utopian communities of techno-optimists, the development of smart data solutions that might save food delivery couriers from exploitation, and the emergence of religious tech that includes an AI Jesus, a robot Rabbi and a virtual reality pilgrimage to Mecca.
The world is changing at a dizzying pace. The themes explored by Digital Frontier, which has been available as a subscription-based online platform for three months, are sometimes disconcerting, even if its overall tone is positive and hopeful.
This seismic societal upheaval is invariably being covered with cynicism by a mainstream media that has itself been brought to its knees by digital disruption and regards technological innovation with instinctive mistrust. Stories are invariably framed in terms of threat rather than potential benefit. That is perhaps unsurprising when AI will likely replace many jobs in the media and creative industries, from writers and translators to graphic designers.
Coverage of tech has often been pushed to the margins of media, in spite of its impact on all of our lives. Wired has been the dominant specialist title in covering the digital revolution and the San Francisco-based magazine reached a highpoint in the mid-90s when the New York Times described it as “the totem of a major cultural movement”.
The bible of Silicon Valley turned 30 last year and now feels like a legacy brand. Entrepreneurs in the UK tech industry, which leads the way in Europe and is world class in sectors such as fintech and healthtech, might feel they lack a media champion.
This is the space that Digital Frontier founder Josh Hewes is looking to fill. Editor Sophia Epstein says that UK tech entrepreneurs reminisce over a time when they would collect technology magazines as a source of inspiration. “Now they feel that the tech media is out to get them a little bit,” she says. “There is a gap in the market for a publication that is celebrating what is good about technology in a way that looks at potential rather than what could go wrong.”
London and other UK tech hubs deserve better coverage, she says. “I don’t think we should be taking the lead from the US all the time and we have the power to shape where technology goes.”
Technology’s rollercoaster of repeat cycles of boom and bust has left headline-hungry news outlets jaded by a sense of déjà vu. Once-inspiring digital visionaries became power-crazed jocks. Digital Frontier reflects that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg now “rages in his MMA (mixed martial arts) gym”, while Tesla and X owner Elon Musk jokes about “starting TITS University (Texas Institute of Technology and Science).” Both are hostile to journalism.
Yet there is still so much technological innovation to be optimistic about, Epstein insists.”Not being open to the excitement of that potential is a waste.” Digital Frontier writes about this hope in nuanced essays of more than 1,000 words.
In its debut edition, it reveals how technology is driving investment into the wine industry. It shows how AI can shorten the time-frame for completing a doctorate. It explores the arrival of a new AI-driven art genre, “Controllism”. The sex toys article was “not necessarily about vibrators”, says Epstein, but “what businesses can learn” about data privacy.
The titles’s target audience includes tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Access to its website, quarterly magazine, newsletter and podcast costs £260-a-year (currently reduced to £200). Print might seem incongruous for a platform focused on AI. “Internet culture can be part of your identity but that does not mean you want everything on a screen,” says Epstein.
Indeed, another Digital Frontier item features British start-up Unplugged, which offers a cabin-based “Out Of Office” digital detox package to those feeling burned out by excessive screen time.
The onward march of AI will have many wanting to shut themselves away. Much of traditional media will line its ramparts and try to hold the robots off. But for younger generations this unstoppable technology will shape the world they will inhabit and they must try to understand what that will look like. Digital Frontier is a good place to start.