The 'True Sensation' dildo is a fleshy, silicone tool that measures exactly 7 inches and has the ability to vibrate (three different frequencies), thrust (seven different speeds), and self-heat (up to 105 degrees Fahrenheit). It's just like the real thing, James Guo, the founder of Our Erotic Journey, assures me from his office in Irvine, California. Best of all'everything is controlled through the app AMZ. 'It connects to someone that's oceans away,' he says of its potential for creating all kinds of sexual fantasies. Teasingly, he adds: 'There's also music that can match the intensity of the vibration.' True Sensation is just one offering featured among the wide inventory of Our Erotic Journey, the sex toy brand Guo launched in 2019. Its online store, which boasts more than 200 products, is a pleasure chest of sexual self-amusement. Take your pick: There's the lipstick-shaped vibrator, a remote-controlled rotating butt plug, various cock rings, something called the 'Gravity Rocket' (a clitoral suction vibrator with seven massage modes), and a smattering of glow-in-the-dark accessories. 'Those are for the ravers,' Guo jokes....

Can the U.S. meaningfully regulate AI' It's not at all clear yet. Policymakers have achieved progress in recent months, but they've also had setbacks, illustrating the challenging nature of laws imposing guardrails on the technology. In March, Tennessee became the first state to protect voice artists from unauthorized AI cloning. This summer, Colorado adopted a tiered, risk-based approach to AI policy. And in September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed dozens of AI-related safety bills, a few of which require companies to disclose details about their AI training. After a protracted battle with special interests, Governor Newsom vetoed bill SB 1047, a law that would have imposed wide-ranging safety and transparency requirements on companies developing AI. Another California bill targeting the distributors of AI deepfakes on social media was stayed this fall pending the outcome of a lawsuit. There's reason for optimism, however, according to Jessica Newman, co-director of the AI Policy Hub at UC Berkeley. Speaking on a panel about AI governance at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, Newman noted that many federal bills might not have been written with AI in mind, but still apply to AI ' like anti-discrimination and consumer protection legislation....

Every presidential election appears to pose one big question'who will win''that is in fact made up of countless smaller questions: How do voters really behave' Which old rules of politics still apply, and which are obsolete' What kind of country do we live in' In 2016, we learned that white evangelical voters would overwhelmingly support a louche serial philanderer. Four years later, we learned that Florida had shifted from the quintessential swing state to a Republican stronghold. Here are five of the biggest outstanding questions heading into next week's vote. Donald Trump's stunning 2016 victory set off a reckoning among pollsters to figure out how they had gotten things so wrong. Then 2020 came around, and they somehow did even worse. Polling averages showed Joe Biden leading in Wisconsin, for example, by 10 points; he won the state by just half a point. Pollsters have offered various overlapping explanations for their errors last time. Republicans seem to have been less likely to respond to surveys, because of a deep mistrust in institutions, which left them underrepresented in the results. And Democrats may have been more likely to respond, because they were more likely to be sheltering in place during COVID. Whatever the precise mechanism, the 2020 polls clearly underestimated support for Trump....

For someone so new to celebrity, Bobbi Althoff sure is good at it. Gliding into a cramped, bohemian studio space tucked into the 14th floor of an office tower in Los Angeles' Arts District, Althoff is well dressed, well coiffed, and appropriately entouraged'she arrives flanked by a makeup artist, a PR rep, and a woman shooting 'BTS' (behind-the-scenes) footage of this interview for Althoff's social media accounts. Althoff, who's 27 years old, just has it, that indescribable presence, that gravitational pull. A person who makes sense as somebody that everybody knows. And a lot more people know Althoff now than they did a few years ago: In 2021, her relentless attempts at taking off on TikTok finally stuck, and she established herself as a viral, albeit subversive, member of Mommy TikTok. That's also where Althoff honed the awkwardly funny, deadpan persona that became her calling card and led to The Really Good Podcast, which is now in its third season. When it launched in April 2023, the show, which sees Althoff interviewing a grab bag of mostly non-A-list celebrities'everyone from Saweetie and Meghan Trainor to Bobby Flay and Mark Cuban'quickly took off and turned Althoff into an online lightning rod even before she spent an hour in bed with Drake. That July 2023 interview drew over 10 million views on Althoff's YouTube channel. And then things got a little weird: What we know is that Althoff pulled the interview offline and both unfollowed each other on social; everything else is conjecture and online conspiracy, mushed together and then shoved through the internet meat grinder. The Drake interview and its ensuing chaos also nudged Althoff over some mythical line, one that separates 'famous person, on the internet' from 'famous person, period,' someone whose personal and professional exploits are tracked by TMZ and written up by People....