Generative AI is embedding itself into products we use every day, and change is happening at a rapid pace. Many innovations in how we consume content online, perhaps unsurprisingly, have their roots in porn. According to Glimpse data, interest in AI porn began trending in November 2022, at the exact same time ChatGPT started trending on Google.
We didn鈥檛 need large language models to tell us that AI porn is on the horizon. The writing was on the wall, in the form of V-tubers.
A V-tuber, or Virtual YouTuber, is an online entertainer that uses a virtual avatar to represent themselves in online videos or content. The avatar is typically anime-inspired, with physically impossible proportions.
The fantasy allure of V-tubers isn鈥檛 limited to cyberspace. Fleshlight released a stroker based on the V-tuber Lilith Fukumoto. The company鈥檚 other clones feature 3D molds of real porn star鈥檚 vulvas on the outside, with fantasy textures on the inside of the sleeve. Lilith鈥檚 mold features 鈥淪hokushu鈥 (tentacle) texture. Add-ons allow the unit to perform in sync with a video library.
So who鈥檚 driving the demand for virtual porn, anyway?
In real life, there are dedicated anime conventions just for V-tubers and their fans. OffKai just took place in San Jose over the weekend. The stereotype of the anime fan as a socially awkward, involuntarily celibate gamer didn鈥檛 come from nowhere. Incels.is is an online forum dedicated to 鈥減eople who lack a significant other,鈥 although it鈥檚 important to note that not every romantically single person is celibate or self-identifies as an incel. Nor does the average single person subscribe to the racist and misogynist views perpetuated in incel spaces.
Incel culture overlaps heavily with online gaming and anime communities. Despite their common denominator being a lack of success in romantically pursuing women despite efforts (so they say), the group is divided on the role of AI in alleviating their loneliness. One user wrote, 鈥淐hatting with AI girls is the future of inceldom.鈥 This perspective removes the possibility that inceldom is something they can work their way out of by learning to interact with women, but I digress. Another user wrote, 鈥淚鈥檇 fuck one but I wouldn鈥檛 gaslight myself into thinking it鈥檚 a human or has feelings.鈥 One thread bemoans the relative lack of diversity of body types in AI girlfriends, with one user writing that AI shamed him for even wanting a fat partner.
Absent a liking or upvoting system, it鈥檚 hard to tell how many individuals on the platform agree with any given take. But engagement on a post titled 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 be incel and anti AI鈥 suggests that adoption of AI in all facets of life 鈥 from productivity to pornography 鈥 is central to the ideology.
The question is: Will people with offline social lives embrace AI porn the same way they鈥檝e taken to porn featuring real people?