“Will AI replace the traditional porn star?”

That’s the question that closes a recent press release for Pornstar.love, a new platform combining “cutting-edge AI technology with adult entertainment, giving users the ability to design, personalize, and connect with their own virtual porn star.”

“The adult industry is undergoing a seismic shift,” the press release asserts. “For decades, platforms like Pornhub have dominated by offering endless videos, but a growing number of viewers are saying that watching isn’t enough. What they crave is interaction, intimacy, and connection.”

I am, admittedly, an increasingly old fart. So, this might just be a generational thing, but when I think of interaction, intimacy and connection, the first thing that springs to mind isn’t sitting at a keyboard typing prompts to trigger a response from software. But, maybe such is our industry’s future?

I can see how creating virtual porn stars and directing them through virtual sex acts would be fun, arousing, satisfying and many other positive things. But “intimacy,” to me, is something requiring another human, preferably one who is also physically present at the time certain intimate moments occur.

“We’re seeing a massive shift in what people want,” said Tiffany, from Pornstar.love. “Users aren’t satisfied with passive consumption anymore. They want experiences that feel personal. They want to feel heard, not just stimulated. Our AI companions provide both.”

I can get on board with all the above, even if I don’t relate to it. Different strokes for different folks and all that. Far be it from me to deny or discourage anyone from pursuing a relationship from which they draw comfort, validation, satisfaction or what have you.

What I can’t get past is that question at the end of the press release, about AI replacing the traditional porn star. The answer the press release offered to its own question: “Probably not, but it’s still fun to have the option to create your own.”

It does sound fun, I’ll admit. But I wish I was as confident about the AI not replacing people in porn – a development some people might applaud, if they see porn as harmful to those who create it. (Granted, many of those same people would prefer that porn not exist in the first place and wouldn’t be the least bit mollified by porn becoming strictly virtual.)

What’s making me squirm has nothing to do with platforms that enable people to express themselves or bring their fantasies to virtual life. I’m squirming because everywhere I look, we’re being encouraged to do more with AI and less with our own brains, hands and possibly even our genitals. And if the future is all about using AI to “improve” on human abilities…. well, I just find that more creepy than neato.

AI is everywhere you look in music these days, too. Again, there’s nothing inherently evil about using AI to create music. There is something very shitty about using AI to create music, pretending it’s all humans doing it, then finally admitting it was AI after a ton of backlash and bad press, but that’s another story.

Like any other technology, AI is merely a tool that can be used for purposes good and/or bad. But AI isn’t like other tools, in that it has the potential to start deciding entirely for itself what it should and will do. And we’re not going to be satisfied with AI helping us make virtual porn stars or crank out Spotify-friendly songs. We’re The Human Race and our whole thing, historically, has been to answer the question “Can we do or make this thing?” without first seriously considering the question “Wait; should we do or make this thing?” We’re going to code our own obsolescence into existence if it’s the last thing we do! (And it just might be.)

Until I figured out how and where to turn off the notifications, every time I opened the software I’m using to write this post, it prodded me to use its shiny new “AI assistant” feature. Would using the AI assistant lead me to write better posts? Probably. But they wouldn’t be my posts anymore. It really is that simple, at least to a stubborn old luddite.

Hell, I could probably use AI right now to “record” some of the most amazing guitar shredding ever “played.” But doing that wouldn’t magically transform me into Guthrie Govan. And so on down the line, whether we’re talking music, art, porn or any other activity traditionally limited to the realms of human ability.

By all means, have fun with AI. Use it to create whatever you please and have the virtual time of your life getting to know your AI porn star girlfriend math tutors. But while we’re diving headlong into the AI-enabled future, let’s try to leave some room to appreciate actual humans actually doing actual things.

Please?

Future image by Tomas Ryant from Pexels