03x02 - Everyone's Got a Price

[bunniefuu]

Previously on The Girlfriend Experience.

[RECRUITER]

Your academic credentials are impressive: behavioral psychology, neuroscience.

Then what happened?

[IRIS]

Like I said, I'm ready for a change.

[JEAKINS]

You got headhunted.

[IRIS]

It's a tech start-up in London.

There's one thing we dislike here at NGM, and that is predetermined outcomes.

I am training the neural net to match faces.

What inputs are you using?

Why choose that over finishing your degree at one of the best schools in the country?

Dad will manage.

Rule number one...

is look the part.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]

[RECRUITER]

Why did you come to us?

Why the V?

[IRIS]

I'm ready to have a real exchange with the men I sleep with.

♪ Do it.

Paul.

Session one.

♪ [MAN]

You all came here for a reason.

♪ Something happened to you in childhood, later in life that formed you...

♪ That shook the very foundations of the world you thought you were inhabiting.

♪ Perhaps that world was your own conscious mind and the assumptions of who you thought you were, could no longer be sustained.

♪ You are all different.

You all made choices.

These choices have led you here.

And I look at you, and I f*cking love what I see.

[LAUGHS]

So, take a day.

Go boating.

Volunteer at an animal shelter.

Tell a stranger they have the most beautiful eyes you've ever seen.

Take a week if you must.

Just come back with something undeniable, a shift in perspective, a bridge between two conflicting principles.

Aim far.

It bears repeating: if you do need bigger or badder inputs, come talk to us.

We'll find solutions.

Don't let your imagination be limited by what's available.

Data is...

Data is data.

It's a... a window waiting to be opened.

But we are all here because of what happens afterwards.

♪ Very good.

And tell your pals out there, "f*ck minimum basic income." Do we really trust them to figure it out?

Not for this generation.

Okay, I'm gonna leave you with a question.

What makes us...

I don't mean us here.

I'm talking general, out there, h*m* digitalis.

What makes us get up in the morning?

♪

[SOFT INDISTINCT CHATTER]

Hey.

Does he always talk like that?

It's just his brain food kicking in.

Edibles?

Nootropics, microdosing or whatever.

Is that a thing here?

Some of the engineers, I guess.

You'll see.

Won't take you long to figure it out.

That'd be sloppy hiring if it did.

Right, just started.

The cool kids are going to the pub tonight, for sh*ts and beer pong.

- Beer pong?

- Mm-hmm.

Once a month, baptize the newbies.

[IRIS]

Uh, I can't tonight.

Next time.

[IRIS]

Sounds good.

♪ [LOCK CLICKS]

[FOOTSTEPS TAPPING]

[LINE RINGING]

♪ [BOOKER OVER PHONE]

Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?

[IRIS]

Hi.

This is Iris.

[BOOKER]

Welcome to the V.

I'm your booker.

You can call me Zelda.

What name should I call you by?

Um...

[ZELDA]

How about Angel or Violet?

As long as it's not your name in reverse.

I was thinking maybe Cassandra.

[ZELDA]

How about Cassie or Callie?

What's wrong with Cassandra?

[ZELDA]

I like it, but the clients may not.

They want to feel like themselves around you.

Cassandra doesn't sound like you're an actual person.

[IRIS]

Makes sense.

[ZELDA]

You're worried the occasional sapio will be ticked off by Cassie?

Uh, no, Cassie's fine.

Let's do that.

[ZELDA]

Congratulations, by the way.

Paul posted his review.

Ten out of ten.

Did he?

[ZELDA]

"Unexpected in the best of ways" and "ignitable," his words.

I assume you'll want to keep him as a client.

I do, but, um, he's a submissive, which I'm generally not into.

I can keep doing it with him, though.

[ZELDA]

Well, he isn't either, not with any of the other women, not to my knowledge.

Huh.

[ZELDA]

Whatever you did, I recommend you keep doing it.

Regulars are best for business.

[IRIS]

Got it.

[ZELDA]

Next, I have a couple of binary choices for you.

Are you okay with girl on girl if a client asks for Cassie and Candy?

Sure.

[ZELDA]

Parties?

Sure.

[ZELDA]

To clarify, it means up to ten clients, at three times your rate.

Means you'll go with anyone who wants you.

[IRIS]

Got it.

- [ZELDA]

Bareback?

- Without protection?

[ZELDA]

Some of the women charge extra or insist on seeing test results up front.

I'm gonna go with no.

[ZELDA]

You name a price.

Most everybody's got one.

Let's put a pin in that.

[ZELDA]

Understood.

a**l?

[IRIS]

Five times my rate.

[ZELDA]

Fetish?

On a case-by-case basis.

I like to know what I'm getting into.

[ZELDA]

You got it.

Will you be setting up a profile?

No, all bookings have to go through you.

♪ [ZELDA]

Men are visual animals.

It's helpful to link those online reviews.

I'm gonna go the opposite route.

Cassie doesn't advertise.

And if those ten-star reviews keep coming, I promise you your phone will ring.

[ZELDA]

We can try that.

[IRIS]

Good.

[ZELDA]

Would you like to be contacted by call or text?

[IRIS]

Uh, text is fine.

[ZELDA]

Are you calling from a secondary phone right now?

[IRIS]

Yes, I am.

[ZELDA]

That's step one.

None of the clients will ever receive your personal info.

We run a full background check on all prospects, and we'll let you know who they are and what they're looking for before you meet them.

We do have private security on standby, not that the need ever arises.

Would you like me to set you up with a driver?

Sure, that'd be great.

[ZELDA]

His name is Leif, ex-secret service, very discreet.

You might want to leave location tracking switched on in case of emergency, your choice.

Clients pay up front.

We process your earnings and then remit via blockchain.

♪ [ELEVATOR BELL DINGS]

[KNOCKING]

[SAFE BEEPING]

♪ [IRIS]

What are you thinking about?

[MAN]

Lots of stuff, mostly classified.

[IRIS CHUCKLES]

[MAN]

No hard feelings about leaving your phone at the door?

I hope it didn't make you uncomfortable.

[IRIS]

No.

Not at all.

I, uh...

I want this to be a private moment.

[MAN]

Really?

[IRIS]

First times are special.

[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]

[MAN]

Who told you that?

So when they told you who I was, is this what you expected?

[IRIS]

They didn't tell me who you were.

[MAN]

No?

No.

[MAN]

But you must have had some ideas, wondering what you were walking into.

[IRIS]

I have a lot of ideas, but I, um...

I want to get to know you...

actually.

[MAN]

Okay.

Okay, in that case, I'm going to want to pull your hair.

♪ Okay.

It's not big, but I know how to use it.

♪ Okay.

And...

I'm going to want to make you cum.

♪ Okay.

[MAN]

Okay.

♪ Can I get you some dessert?

A drink, maybe?

♪ Doppio macchiato would be great.

Give me one moment.

[CLEARS THROAT]

♪ [HIRAM]

So we went into their public API and looked at one set of likes versus H-Group matches that led to an actual exchange.

Think of it as a slot machine, except the selection process is anything but random.

And it comes with a % success rate at predicting match quality.

Take any dating pool.

You know, you think there's some validity to the old "opposites attract," right?

Not according to this data.

[IRIS]

Shared features seem to be key...

Independent of sexual orientation, by the way.

When given a choice or the illusion of choice, people have a pretty narrow picker.

They essentially want a mirror.

That's no big surprise, really, given you're looking at, say, average sixes and up?

[IRIS]

Maybe this is just about the proliferation of traits that are already deemed desirable.

Right.

What's your pitch?

Well, it's based on this idea of a mirror...

If we can train AI to be that mirror, of course.

How's it different from an AI therapist or a life coach or a companion for kids on the spectrum?

You know, we've been called, um, a dating R&D group, which is very narrow-minded.

We are... a human desire company.

This mirroring idea would be less about what people need and more about giving them what they want.

Even if it's a little bad for them...

But within safe space because virtual.

♪ Is it based on conversational inputs?

Yeah, the next step would be NLP...

You know, voice messaging, H-Group chats.

A-a mirror would have to be image-based, though, wouldn't it?

Otherwise, it's just an echo.

Ultimately, yes, if we can get our hands on the correct training sets.

Peach and eggplant emojis only take you so far in natural language processing.

Twenty-five quid.

Uh, that's, um the amount the world's biggest online retailer offered his customers doing a D full-body scan in form-fitting clothing.

Internal product research, quote, un-quote.

What do you think the product is?

Teaching AI to turn D images into moving D?

Twenty-five quid.

Form-fitting clothing.

All right.

You've got my attention.

Let me make a few calls.

Well done.

We don't do... sloppy hiring.

♪ Is that what you hired me to do, come up with new training sets?

That's how we train AI: with data...

straight from the source or bundled and repackaged at dumping rate.

I'm gonna make those phone calls now.

♪ [IRIS]

Georges.

Session One.

♪ He wouldn't let me keep my phone, which is why I'm annotating the session from memory.

[GEORGES]

I need this to be simple.

[IRIS]

I like simple.

[GEORGES]

Out there, it's complicated.

[IRIS]

Once I sat face-to-face with him, my first impulse was to avoid my own bias towards a public figure.

[GEORGES]

I thought it was one thing, protect and serve.

Got seduced by the window dressing.

Inside the back room, different story.

It's best to keep the lights off.

Hmm.

Stocked with too much foreign product.

Can't talk to your wife about any of that?

Understandably, he has a need for privacy.

We're not together anymore, haven't been for years.

Nobody...

actually knows.

♪ [IRIS]

Considering other factors, though...

The wedding ring to keep up appearances, certain mannerisms like putting his pinkie up every time he takes a drink...

He orchestrated the experience for me in its entirety.

It's possible that his primary need is to be in control of the situation so that he can relax.

What do you do to relax?

I don't.

Maybe a Lugar Ocho... on a good day.

Tequila?

No.

Rolled tobacco.

♪ How about I help you relax?

♪ Let me ask you this.

What are you doing for the rest of the afternoon...

if I were to formally extend this situation?

♪ I like to take my time.

♪ If you can wrangle your people, I'll do my part.

♪ [GEORGES SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

[MAN]

No, absolutely not!

[IRIS]

He asked for permission to pull my hair, yet when he had a chance to do exactly that, it wasn't a gesture of control.

It was intimate, surprising.

[GEORGES SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

♪ [IRIS]

Question is, does he like to receive, or does he prefer to give?

♪ If I brought him his favorite cigars, would he enjoy that, or would I be overstepping?

[GEORGES SIGHS]

♪ [IRIS]

Find out what his sweet spots are.

♪ [GEORGES]

Oh, God, you're beautiful.

♪ On your knees.

♪ [SOFT INDISTINCT CHATTER]

[TREADMILL BEEPING]

♪ [PERSON ]

Look me in the eyes when I enter you.

[PERSON ]

But then it's soothing and, uh, soft and warm.

Then, uh, you start stroking me and just keep talking like that.

[PERSON ]

I just lie there and I do nothing, not one thing.

'Cause I'm like the queen.

[PERSON ]

All you want to do is to give me pleasure...

The hands, your mouth, your cock.

[PERSON ]

Just don't say anything.

I mean, don't speak.

[PERSON ]

I don't wanna hear you want it like this or you want it like that type of thing.

Don't call me babe.

[PERSON ]

Make all the filthy noises you want.

But don't use the English language or any other language, for that matter.

[PERSON ]

It's just about consistency, knowing what works, isn't it?

Keep at it.

[PERSON ]

Like, keep thrusting, but don't get wonky and experimental.

Just let me have it.

[IRIS]

He responded positively to me putting him in a submissive position, first verbally, then physically.

[PERSON ]

It's definitely the fastest way for me to get off.

[PERSON ]

I don't know why it gets me hard.

But I mean f*ck it.

Why not, right?

[PERSON ]

I'm gonna want to, uh, cup my hands and grab it, hold on to it while we f*ck.

[IRIS]

He came twice and seemed surprised by his own body.

[PERSON ]

It has to be a good handful.

[PERSON ]

Whoever you are, boy or girl, I'll fancy the pants off of you if you have a beautiful ass.

[PERSON ]

I want variety.

[PERSON ]

Just please, please don't f*ck me the same way every time.

[PERSON ]

Large breasts.

Bonus points if they're fake.

[PERSON ]

Bonus points if they're real.

[PERSON ]

Slim and fit.

[PERSON ]

You can either give it to me, or you can't.

♪ [IRIS]

Wow.

[CHUCKLES]

That was a handful.

[HIRAM]

Yup.

And these are real people?

[HIRAM]

Real thoughts.

Courtesy of our tech lead, we now have a whole library of this stuff.

They ran an audio extractor module over all the API content.

Uh, they just let a bunch of actors read out loud.

I wouldn't even know how to begin quantifying that.

- [HIRAM]

No kidding.

- [CHUCKLES]

It's personal.

But we can't use it.

Would help to see their faces, though, wouldn't it?

[IRIS]

Yeah, it would.

All right, maybe we take a step back, you know, just...

start with audio, break it down b*at by b*at.

They're talking about what they like, but so what?

The actual question is, do their emotions and behaviors actually correspond to that?

You know what?

Let's look at vocal patterns: cadence, pauses, speech modulation...

Or as you neuroscientists would say, anything related to self-expression and the release of happy hormones.

[CHUCKLES]

♪ People's personal experience of what turns them on, it's not about what they want but how they're feeling about it in the moment.

The object of desire is a foil.

♪ It doesn't actually exist.

[EMCEE]

Hello.

I don't think we've met before.

Who are you?

[IRIS]

Brett: Session one.

He uses anger to express desire.

Do you want me to make you angry, big boy?

No, not angry.

Mad.

[CHRISTOPHE]

What you're doing with these clients, decoding their wants comes easy to you.

[IRIS]

I give them an experience.

[TIRES SCREECHING]

We know who you are.

[MAN]

Are you scared?

[CHRISTOPHE]

You ask anyone at the forefront of cognitive sciences, and they come to the conclusion that we are all just puppets on a string.