Is AI porn the next horizon in self-pleasure — and is it ethical?

Yahoo

2 days ago

The AI revolution is well and truly upon us. As we grapple with the ramifications of generative AI in our professional and personal worlds, it's worth remembering that its impact will be felt in even the most intimate corners of our lives — including our private browsers.
Whether you're aware of it or not, AI is coming for the porn industry. Already, there are a number of new genres emerging which make use of generative AI, such as hyper porn, a genre of erotic imagery which stretches the limits of sexuality and human anatomy to hyperbolic new heights (think: a Barbie-esque woman with three giant breasts, instead of two). There are also various iterations of 'gone wild' porn, a subdivision of porn which sees users attempt to 'trick' safe-for-work image generation models like Dall-E into depicting erotic scenes — and enjoying the work-arounds and euphemisms which these tools may use to avoid depicting explicit sex.
But it's unlikely AI will wipe out the existence of IRL porn performers. AI porn stretches the fantasy innate within the porn and erotic content industries – materialising flawless avatars tailored to an individual's unique desires out of, seemingly, thin air. For some, this will be a turn-on but for others, it will lack the sweat and grit that makes IRL sex so appealing.
'I think there will be a splitting between people jumping head first into unreality and the people who actually want an antidote to it. We're already seeing such a huge fracturing of reality in our everyday lives,' says Vex Ashley, the porn performer, director, producer and one half of creative pornography project Four Chambers.
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Ultimately, she insists, there will be a demographic that still hungers for a semblance of real human interaction. 'We'll absolutely see something like a build-your-own-AI custom pornstar who is also your digital girlfriend but I think — despite what people say — for many, sex is an experience they want to be grounded in some kind of authenticity,' Ashley adds. 'Person to person, there's a reason why you want to talk to your favourite pornstar on OnlyFans. I think we'll see a pushback, a rise of amateur, homemade content and in-person sexual events, experiences — something tactile.'
While the industry is beginning to grapple with generative AI, the consumer point of view is coming into focus and, for some, it could provoke difficulties – especially for those already struggling with excessive porn use. While sex and relationships therapists tend to be sceptical about the topic of 'porn addiction' — it doesn't appear in diagnostic manuals and it is instead considered to be a form of compulsive sexual behaviour — a whole porn subculture exists around 'gooning': an extreme evolution of orgasm denial which sees individuals, generally cis men, enter into a trance-like state after edging for hours, locked into masturbation sessions with the aid of online porn. Speaking to an anonymous gooner, he shares his view of how AI may impact chronic porn users.
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'AI porn kind of offers this new version of gooning. What is extremely sexy is typing in every crass thought that you have and immediately seeing it generated as an image.' He describes accessing NSFW generative AI models like Uber Realistic Porn Merge and then downloading different LoRAs (Low-Rank Adaptation — a type of add-on which allows you to quickly fine-tune an AI model) for various angles and scenarios within porn, such as 'reverse anal' or 'deep-throat side view'. 'You try them out and you're like, 'Oh, this is super hot…but I want the characters to be holding hands with a priest!''
From there, the hunger for more and more extreme fantasies can quickly escalate. 'It's bizarre, you tend to end up in this cycle of typing in a scenario, waiting five seconds until it comes up and, from there, chasing different scenarios — like having sex in the subway — that you can't do in real life.' The possibilities of AI to turn an individual's most niche fantasies into tangible images, all at the click of a button, are hugely compelling but, as my interviewee explains, it's also potentially troubling for individuals who may struggle with compulsive porn use. 'Live generation goon sessions will definitely become more popular,' he says. 'I've seen people in Reddit threads who are like, 'I can't stop gooning over AI porn'. I agree — I tasted it and it was fucking addictive.'
It's worth noting here that, for anyone who is concerned about their porn consumption (of AI content, or otherwise), you might want to ask yourself questions about whether you want to stop but can't, or if there is a pattern of escalation. Ultimately, if you feel like your porn consumption is spiralling, it's worth reaching out to a therapist specialised in the field of compulsive sexual behaviour or a charity such as Relate, which can offer support around so-called 'porn addiction' (psychotherapists say there is no clinical evidence to support the diagnosis of 'porn addiction').
But as well as holding potential concerns for porn viewers, the rise of AI porn could have a serious knock-on effect for individuals currently working in the porn industry as actors or performers. After all, the obvious appeal of AI is the ability to see images and short-form video that explore hyper-unrealistic fantasies that aren't just impossible in 'real life' but for humans at all (like realistic vampire porn, or convincing erotic alien abduction scenes).
For flesh-and-blood individuals working in the erotic industries, the increasing availability of AI — and potential impact on demand for porn featuring real humans — is already providing pause. 'I think it would be naive to say that we won't see huge shifts across all industries, porn and sex have always been right at the forefront of technological advancement,' says Ashley.
As with other industries and forms of labour, Ashley explains that there will inevitably be concerns around workers' rights as consumers begin to explore AI-generated imagery. 'We're unfortunately going to see a space long dominated by the labour, skill and ingenuity of women and queer people be flooded with men finally able to achieve the ability to create the image of a person they want to fuck, without needing the person themself,' Ashley explains.
While some porn performers are using AI themselves, such as for sexy chatbots, the lack of employment law protections for workers in the industry means they will be especially vulnerable to consumer changes. 'It's going to be a labour rights issue for sex workers who are already so legislatively unprotected compared to other performers in mainstream media,' says Ashley.
In addition to these labour rights concerns, AI can be used to create non-consensual explicit deepfakes, prompting serious questions around consumer responsibility. For those who are unfamiliar, non-consensual explicit deepfakes typically consist of an individual's face and likeness being superimposed onto a naked body or an erotic scenario without their knowledge, then distributed online. It goes without saying that this type of material is a major violation of an individual's right to autonomy, privacy, and dignity. As a result, the creation of these images is already due to become illegal in England and Wales, with legislation recently signed to crack down on deepfakes in the U.S.
However, as Professor Clare McGlynn, an expert in the legal regulation of pornography, sexual violence, and online abuse explains, the consumption of these images remains unregulated — meaning that they can be viewed without repercussions. 'Viewing sexually explicit deepfakes is not an offence. It is, though, deeply unethical. Survivors experience this abuse as a violation of their bodily and sexual integrity,' she explains. 'Each viewing is a new act of sexual violence, a breach of their consent. That so many are viewing this material should be deeply worrying, as it suggests a large market for non-consensual material.'
Thankfully, efforts are being made to bring distributors of sexually explicit deepfakes to account — cutting consumers off from the source. This year, in fact, the figure behind one of the world's best-known non-consensual explicit deepfake sites was identified, and the site in question, MrDeepfakes, shut down.
However, more should be done to prevent this kind of abuse from happening, rather than taking down the material once it has already been made and distributed, as Madelaine Thomas, an adult content creator and the founder of Image Angel, a software company which creates invisible watermarks to prevent non-consensual image sharing, attests. 'Social media platforms don't have the infrastructure they need to be able to protect the people on those platforms from content that isn't authentic or isn't captured in the correct way,' Thomas explains.
The best-known cases of non-consensual explicit deepfakes involve well-known celebrities, but the scale of the harm is wider than many are aware. The ability to pirate the likeness or body of any individual who has posted photos on the internet has led to an increasing number of victims speaking out about the abuse they have faced over the past few years. In future, it's likely that more and more individuals will sadly be impacted by these crimes, including those in the adult entertainment industry, a demographic who are often victim-blamed when they come forward about instances of sexual abuse.
But are there solutions? In the background, work is definitely underway. For example, Image Angel was founded after Thomas's intimate images were distributed without her consent, leading to a passion to prevent this kind of abuse in future — one that is reflected in her company's mission. 'Image Angel adds an invisible forensic watermark to any content that is received on a platform that has our tech installed. For example, if a content creator is sending out multiple nude or suggestive images, they can make sure that whoever receives them will be traceable if they share them,' she explains.
While Thomas is keen to emphasise the damage of non-consensual explicit deepfake abuse, she also emphasises that the current AI model for all explicit content is based on the non-consensual extraction of erotic images. 'I work with the Digital Intimacy Coalition, and for years we have been campaigning to get people to understand that generated deepfakes do not solely put one person at the center of the harm,' she explains. 'The customer is none the wiser, but these AI tools are almost like a black hole that we are just seeing the very surface of. There are thousands of people, mostly women, whose images have been fed into these multi-language models. The tools might spit out an image of one person, but that image is comprised of thousands of sex workers' data.'
Ultimately, an increased awareness around the potential harms of AI porn may encourage some viewers from taking a more conscientious approach. But we can't just rely on consumers to do the right thing – there needs to be an infrastructure to protect individuals from having their image stolen and misappropriated. For her part, Thomas expects to see more porn and erotic imagery behind the paywall, with in-built technology to prevent content from being fed into AI models. She also expects that AI-poisoning tools, like Nightshade, may well augment in popularity as a way to prevent images and videos from being fed into AI models.
Whatever the future holds, it will be a rocky journey for the adult entertainment industry and wider society as we grapple with these nefarious uses of new technology – making it all the more important to listen to porn and adult content creators, fight for survivors of image-based sexual abuse, and campaign for further AI regulation.