“I used to be not too long ago divorced. I’m homosexual. I had abs.”
Cale Jones delivers this clarification for his preliminary 25,000 Instagram followers with the identical transparency that’s turn out to be his signature within the labyrinthine worlds of SexTech and AI. It’s the sort of unvarnished honesty that feels nearly revolutionary in our period of fastidiously curated digital personas and exactly what makes Jones such a compelling determine on the nexus of expertise, id, and intimacy.
On a drizzly spring morning, Jones seems on my display screen from his Austin, Texas dwelling, the place we each reside and battle seasonal allergy symptoms. Even by way of the digital haze of Zoom, there’s one thing disarmingly current about him, a top quality that appears by some means innate and cultivated.
As we communicate, it turns into clear that Jones isn’t simply traversing the globe or constructing apps; he’s mapping fully new terrain on the intersection of who we’re and who our expertise permits us to turn out to be.
The Shapeshifter
In skilled circles, Jones has earned a popularity as a chameleon, a designation he embraces with attribute self-awareness. “Get comfy with discomfort,” he advises, leaning barely towards the digicam. “You’re going to be straddling industries, international locations, and expectations.” This philosophy has guided his unconventional trajectory from luxurious trend by way of Hollywood media and finally into the technological vanguard of sexual wellness and AI companionship.
However not like many digital nomads who drift between identities and industries looking for the subsequent alternative, Jones’s actions really feel purposeful, much less a profession path than he describes as “a residing archive of trial, instinct, and cultural nerve.” The widespread thread shouldn’t be skilled development however a persistent questioning of private and societal boundaries.
“What works in a single room doesn’t imply it’ll work in one other,” he notes, talking of his adaptability. For Jones, this shapeshifting isn’t merely strategic; it’s methodological. The identical method informs his understanding of queerness, not merely as an id marker however as a framework for reimagining buildings and expectations.
His model of disruption operates in a whisper somewhat than a shout. “It’s the quiet, deliberate reshaping of what will get to be seen, what will get to be stated, and who will get to say it,” he explains. Jones’s delicate method feels nearly radical in a tech panorama dominated by bombastic guarantees of revolution.
The Builder
When Jones speaks of his function as CEO of The MŌN App, a queer-owned neighborhood messaging platform facilitating nameless conversations round sexuality and id, his language shifts from private to communal. The platform emerged as a response to rising digital restrictions round sexual content material, a phenomenon Jones contextualizes with sobering statistics: one-third of academics report school-blocked LGBTQ+ content material, and final 12 months alone noticed over 10,000 cases of guide bans in public colleges, 1 / 4 focusing on LGBTQ+ themes.
“The mission I set out for MŌN was to supply a secure place to speak about intercourse,” Jones explains. “The end result? Folks popping out for the primary time. Saying issues they’ve by no means felt secure sufficient to say earlier than.” For all the delicate expertise underpinning the platform, its core innovation could also be this straightforward creation of digital sanctuary — what Jones calls “reclaiming voice, vulnerability, and connection in a world that too usually censors the true stuff.”
This ethos extends to his work as Head of Group Development at EVA AI, a platform permitting customers to create and join with AI companions. Current survey knowledge suggests that is removed from the perimeter territory: 8 in 10 males would think about marrying an AI girlfriend if legally permitted, and 83% imagine they might kind a deep emotional bond with one.
The projected progress of the AI companionship area — from a number of million in annual income to probably $150 billion by the last decade’s finish — suggests Jones is working at the forefront of a profound social shift.
“AI companionship permits individuals to be their genuine selves with out worry of judgment,” he observes. “It creates a secure area to discover ideas, feelings, and wishes which may really feel too weak to share in actual life.” The advantages transcend the digital realm, as evidenced by the MŌN consumer who found her bisexuality by way of the platform, an exploration she had by no means felt safe sufficient to undertake offline.
The Bridge Builder
David Levy, writer of “Love and Intercourse with Robots,” prophesies that “by the center of this century, many human beings may have shaped deep emotional, even sexual, relationships with robots — attachments each bit as intense because the love we really feel for different human beings.” Levy’s prediction that “the primary sexbots might be to at the moment’s intercourse dolls what the iPhone is to the transistor radio” might sound hyperbolic.
Nonetheless, Jones approaches such claims with pragmatic curiosity somewhat than dismissal.
This willingness to noticeably have interaction with rising fashions of connection units Jones aside from each utopian technologists and reactionary critics like Sherry Turkle, whose considerations about expertise exploiting human vulnerability (“We’re lonely however afraid of intimacy. Digital connections provide the phantasm of companionship with out the calls for of friendship”) appear more and more simplistic as {our relationships} with expertise evolve.
Jones positions himself as a bridge between these poles — between conventional conceptions of intimacy and rising fashions, marginalized communities and technological alternative, and private exploration and cultural shift. “I need to make cultural shifts at a bigger scale,” he says. How do you do this? You begin with one thing small and private after which scale the hell out of it.”
When Jones initially ventured into SexTech, hesitation was inevitable. “I wasn’t assured at first pursuing intercourse tech. However then a community confirmed up round me and stated: ‘It’s best to do that.’” This interaction between private vulnerability and neighborhood help recurs all through his narrative — a reminder that even probably the most progressive work emerges not from remoted genius however from collective braveness.
The Redefined Metric
Probably the most revealing facet of Jones’s method is his dialogue of how he measures success: “My KPIs aren’t simply performance-based anymore. I set interest-based KPIs. Shopping for property. Studying self-defense. Make bizarre, good issues.”
In an trade obsessive about metrics, Jones’s inclusion of “make bizarre, good issues” alongside conventional markers of accomplishment feels quietly subversive. It speaks to a extra built-in understanding of function, permitting him to rework from somebody whose on-line following initially responded to his bodily look to somebody leveraging that platform for substantive advocacy.
“I take advantage of my platform to maneuver tradition ahead. That’s what issues,” he insists. “It’s not nearly cash. Are you able to construct one thing good, and does it really do good? That’s the reward.” In a digital panorama dominated by what he calls “thirst traps and model offers,” Jones’s method represents a unique sort of algorithm — one which values genuine connection over fleeting engagement.
As our dialog winds down, Jones returns to persistent experimentation. “In case you can provide one thing, give one thing. That’s my primary rule for any sort of neighborhood constructing.” Coming from one other tech entrepreneur, such a press release may sound like practiced altruism.
From Jones, it resonates as a real methodology, the identical method that has guided his uncommon trajectory from trend to AI, private exploration, and cultural innovation.
The platform that after rewarded his abs now amplifies advocacy. Social media gave him a following, however the work gave him a mission. In a world the place success nonetheless too usually follows predetermined paths, Jones continues mapping his personal, proving that probably the most attention-grabbing journeys not often observe straight strains.
Actually.
