To AI or Not to AI: Wonderfully Great or Extremely Bad for the Adult Entertainment Industry—And Us?
Limitless creativity versus the same old, unimaginative slop
“The disturbing irony of our culture’s current mindset is that as society fights against women’s victimization, it also collectively promotes and celebrates the porn industry—an industry that inherently, directly, and unapologetically victimizes women for entertainment and profit,” claims Fight The New Drug, a non-religious, nonprofit anti-pornography advocacy group.
Other groups and organizations agree, such as Citizens for Decency, Enough Is Enough, and the UK-based Naked Truth, with CEO and founder Ian Henderson, declaring “Porn is hijacking people’s lives, robbing futures, families and freedom. We educate on the damages of porn and journey people towards a life without it—a life of authentic connection and healthy relationships.”
Though what if adult content could be produced that not only doesn’t involve human performers but also provides an emotionally healthy sexual outlet?
The answer is it’s already here, compliments of another currently controversial subject, image-generating artificial intelligence—with an explicit twist.
Tell me what you want
While major players in the AI industry remain committed to keeping their Large Language Models sexually chaste, the proliferation of similar technologies has led to the rise of more erotically liberated options. Candy AI, Deep Swap AI, Lovescape, the list goes on and on—and is getting longer nearly every day.
Naturally, anti-porn crusaders aren’t happy, though aside from Collective Shout’s demonetization campaign against erotic game developers, it seems most of their focus has been on supporting anti-deepfake laws.
In all fairness, the creation and distribution of anyone’s likeness without their permission is inexcusable —let alone whether exploitive or intentionally harmful—just as AI also shouldn’t ever be trained using creator-unapproved media.
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Not dismissing these and other legitimate concerns, the issue appears to be whether trying to put the sexually explicit digital genie back in its bottle is either futile or possibly even emotionally and/or sexually harmful.
As 404Media put it, “Much like anti-abortion laws don’t end abortion, and the so-called war on drugs didn’t ‘win’ over drugs, anti-porn laws don’t end the adult industry. They only serve to shift power from people—sex workers, adult content creators, consumers of Porn and anyone who wants to access sexual speech online without overly-burdensome barriers—to politicians like Senator Mike Lee, who is currently pushing to criminalize Porn at the federal level.”
Your wish is my command
Without ignoring the necessity for some legal regulation, it’s important to frame the discussionaround the crucial importance of consent and less about anti-porn hysteria. In that context, non-human-involved adult content has a lot going for it.
To begin with, people have enjoyed making and viewing sexy pictures for as long as we could carve our fantasies onto cave walls—or drag a stick along the ground Sure, our sticks are now ultra-sophisticated algorithms, and our canvas is the world-spanning internet, but the principle’s the same.
So why, thousands of years later, should the same sort of sexualized media be the downfall of humanity? If anything, erotic fantasies are often emotionally beneficial
Enter Psychology Today, “Just as fantasizing about being a world-class jewel thief doesn’t mean you’re going to become a thief, having sexual fantasies doesn’t mean you’re going to act on them. Fantasizing is our brain’s way of projecting a future scenario or trying ideas on for size. It’s also a way of reliving a wonderful moment or deriving comfort or pleasure from an alternative reality.”
Just give it a little rub
The developing, non-exploitative, as it is not based on a real person’s likeness without permission, along with a few other important safeguards like preventing the generation of underage characters or depictions of non-consensual violence or emotional/sexual abuse, might curb, if not potentially eliminate, the female exploitation.
On top of all that, it would put creative control in the hands of the people who need it the most While once we had to accept what the industry put out, with AI technology we’ll be able to self express our erotic imaginations like never before—and, with the exception of those crucial guidelines —without limit.
It’s time to finally accept the warm, human reality that arousal can be as essential and life-affirming as a good belly laugh
But just as we shouldn’t find humans at someone else’s expense, so too AI-generated adult materials mustn’t ever be based on someone without their permission—instead of focusing on healthy, life-affirming, pleasure-affirming fantasies.
Image Sources: Depositphotos
