Pornography can be described as the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal.
Also called porn, the matter can be traced back to ancient times, and predates almost all forms of arts, found in the form of carvings on stones, among others.
Fast forward, porn can be presented in a variety of other media, including magazines, animation, writing, film, video, and video games.
And in the world where the Rule 34 applies, it was only a matter of time before something new will emerge.
Among them, a particular one was born out of Artificial Intelligence.
Deepfake was the first time that AI is used publicly, and easily, to create fake pornography. At first, people were swapping celebrities' faces to porn stars' bodies. But later, things evolved pretty past.
As AIs become smarter, AI-made porn can be made, using little less than typing simple text prompts, or even voice command.
AI porn is about as unsettling as it is imperfect.
First of, AIs can create genuine images of nudity if not pornography, without having to require humans undressing and engage in poses and sexual acts.
The AI can create non-existing people, and adorn them with nudity.
Thanks to AIs, computers can "imagine" how humans would look like while naked, thanks to the abundance of pornographic materials that can be found publicly.
AI systems like Stable Diffusion, which translate text prompts into pictures, have been used by brands and artists to create concept images, award-winning prints and full-blown marketing campaigns. And this includes the ability to create pornography.
However, computers don't have senses like humans.
They don't "see" or "hear" or "feel" the world the same as humans do. As a result, they cannot "experience" human sexuality the way humans can.
As a result of this, some AI-generated images are known to have defects and flaws, even when they appear crisp and clear.
In this case, an AI generating pornography may inadvertently create a nude model with three hands or three breasts. Some of the creations seem like the models have deformed face, and sometimes their genitals don't really look like humans'.
But as tech continues to improve, the technology may as well evoke challenging questions for AI ethicists, as well as sex workers alike.
For instance, there are AIs that can easily, and quickly create nude AI-generated models using text input. There is also AIs that can do this through toggles.
This allows users to create their own porn, based on their personal taste and prefereces.
By using the AIs, users are no longer required to "look" for existing pornographic materials. Instead, using the AIs, they can create new ones that haven't been seen before.
AIs like this raise lots of questions.
For example, there are questions about whether the "customization" of porn could hurt adult content creators who are making a living doing the same.
Many work by becoming models on OnlyFans, among others, for example. Could the AIs affect the way they work, by affecting the way their subscribers view pornography?
Then, there is the question about age. For all this time, adult content viewers should verify their age, so the website or the company that provide the adult content know that their users are consenting adults.
But how about AI-generated porn models? Do they fall into this category? Should they provide their age and identity, because that is impossible since the models aren't real.
Deepfake porn is often created to threaten and harass people.
As a matter of fact, most deepfakes were made without the subject's consent. According to a report by Sensity AI in a 2019 research, 96% of all deepfake videos online were non-consensual porn.
What this means, questions should also be asked considering the data sets.
For example, what sorts of data sets were used to train the AIs? How biased the AIs are?
This is because there is a possibility the data sets the AIs were trained on included people who’ve not consented to having their image being used for AI training.
These people can include sex workers and porn stars, and even those people who have their sex tape leaked, amateurs, or victims of revenge porn.
And if the AIs get better, can the imagery be commercialized? Who will own the copyright of the photos?
Since AI image generators are easily accessible, and the ones that are dedicated into creating pornographic materials do exist, the world should be prepared.
In the past, the internet killed Playboy.
Fast forward, AIs can kill online pornography when their creations become indistinguishable from the real thing, spark debate, and entice the creation of new laws. But if not, it may at least settle with glorifying a new fetish.
After all, through the customizations the AIs allow, the technology could be used to create more diverse and inclusive porn, featuring a wider range of body types, ethnicities, and even genders. It could also be used to create safer porn, by removing the need for performers to engage in risky sexual acts.
In other words, with proper regulations and advanced tech to avoid exploits, the technology could be used to provide the "perfect" content.