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YouPorn Introduces Jedy Vales, Adult’s First Virtual Influencer
Posted On 14 May 2019
Something fascinating is happening in social media. After years of millennials driving the public conversation as social media influencers, companies have taken to creating their own artificial intelligence-driven, CGI virtual influencers.
For instance, Miquela Sousa (aka Lil Miquela) is a fictional character and digital art project. She’s described/characterized as an Instagram model — and she has a legitimately significant Instagram following of 1.5 million — and music artist from Downey, CA. Other virtual influencers include Liam Nikuro, Laila Blue, Imma and Koffi Gram, all of who are showing that one does not need to be human to be a star on social media.
YouPorn recently jumped on the virtual influencers bandwagon via its newest brand ambassador, Jedy Vales. Vales is a “sentient robot” who can interact with social media users. Created by virtual reality company Camasutra VR, Vales is the company’s latest attempt to break through on social media.
“As a leader in the adult entertainment industry, we’ve struggled to find a proper way to interact and share with our users through means like Twitter and Instagram, where we get shadow banned or our accounts are deleted,” YouPorn chairman Charlie Hughes said via EveningStandard.
“With Jedy, not only are we able to put a new face to our brand, we are now able to have intimate interactions with our users in a totally new way. In our eyes, Jedy is also seen as an important early step in the next phase of technology working with humans, instead of working to replace humans and human sexuality,” Hughes continued.
Vales would offer “intimate” posts to users. While it is unclear what any of this means, EveningStandard reported that the influencer told followers in her first Instagram video post, “I know that many of YouPorn’s users are also huge fans and users of social media. Well, me too! That’s why I’m so excited to join the team and share my digital experience with the community.”
“It’s fun to share information about my favorite porn site and little peeks into my life with the YouPorn community,” Vales continued. “I am looking forward to becoming their go-to source for providing fun and entertaining updates while being an active part of the future of porn!”
Another of her posts asks, “Will your str8 boyfriend jerk off to Jedy Vales soon?”
Editor’s note: Embedded below is Vales’ first Instagram video post, though it does not seem to say what EveningStandard reported. Maybe they were thinking of something said in a now-expired Stories post? Either way…
While technical innovation has made it possible to create life-like virtual people, it is mathematically intensive and requires significant computing processing power. A suite of commercially available software can simplify the virtual avatar creation process, but it still takes a notable investment in time and equipment to render a video that is more than a few seconds long.
Despite this, the market for virtual influencers has grown. Virtual influencers, as a fully controlled digital puppet, are less prone to the foibles and mistakes that have plagued real-life influencers — and burdened their sponsors. This presents less risk for corporate advertisers, who lose face when an influencer fails in public.
This is not the porn industry’s first foray into artificial intelligence. Sex robots are (allegedly) on the rise, and virtual reality is increasingly reducing the barriers to engagement in porn. It is an open question as to how far influencers like Vales can go though. How can Vales promote YouPorn, for instance, without also promoting banned adult content? Even further, is it even ethical for an artificial person to present itself as real?
“I bring a completely unique layer of technology and personality to YouPorn that no other IRL influencer would,” Vales stated in an interview with Paper Magazine.
“Not only do I bring a level of flexibility and breadth other types of influencers cannot match, I will be the first to interact within sexual contexts and engage with users by sharing my day-to-day life across both conventional social platforms, and adult sites like Modelhub,” the influenced continued.
According to Vales, even her name is “irreplaceable to the adult entertainment industry.”
“YouPorn used its data science and machine learning to curate what the next generation of porn performers would call themselves, and the AI predicted Jedy Vales. That being said, I am the result of so much IRL influence, you can’t have the virtual influencers without the IRL influencers,” she said.
Time will tell if Vales and the tech team behind her is correct.
Image of Vales and real live human Mia Malkova taken from the post below.
