Is AI Porn the Next Horizon in Self-Pleasure and is it Ethical?

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. Generative artificial intelligence opens up new possibilities for porn fans, but there is a human cost.

Emerging Genres of AI-Generated Content

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.

Summary of Key AI Porn Terms and Data

Term	Description
Hyper Porn	Erotic imagery stretching the limits of human anatomy to hyperbolic heights.
‘Gone Wild’ AI	Attempting to trick SFW models like Dall-E into generating explicit scenes.
Custom Pornstar	A build-your-own digital girlfriend/performer tailored to unique desires.
Gooning	An extreme evolution of orgasm denial aided by online porn sessions.

The Conflict Between Fantasy and Authenticity

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. Vex Ashley, the porn performer, director, producer and one half of creative pornography project Four Chambers, observes: “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.”

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. Furthermore, she notes, “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.”

Impact on Consumption and the ‘Gooning’ Subculture

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 — 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: “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) for various angles and scenarios. From there, the hunger for more and more extreme fantasies can quickly escalate. As he explains, “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.