Imagine this: A guy asks a girl out in his class. She rejects him and instead of moving on, he decides to use photos from her social media to create hyper-realistic porn with her face on it using AI. He then distributes this video on sites like Pornhub and other tube sites as a way of getting back at her for rejecting him.
Soon, a majority of the guys in her class watch this video, believing it to be real. Someone sends her a link. And while she knows it’s fake, the realistic nature and trauma associated with watching herself “perform” such horrific acts is too much to handle. She is depressed, traumatized, and considers taking her own life.
This is not just a story. This is a look into a future in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is easily accessible to anyone with a smart device. The proliferation of AI technology has led to some incredible advancements in almost every professional field. However, one area where AI has already had an alarming impact is in the creation and distribution of pornographic content. It provides the opportunity to create hyper-realistic porn without the use of people’s actual bodies. So, what are the implications?
A Move Away from the Traditional Porn Industry
Our recent 3-part documentary miniseries, Beyond Fantasy, exposes the dark side of the mainstream porn industry, which is riddled with sexual abuse and coercion, where women are treated like expendable commodities and often leave the industry with severe trauma, lifelong physical injuries, or drug and alcohol abuse problems.
Knowing this devastating reality, it could be argued that if real people aren’t being used in the creation of AI porn, wouldn’t this be considered a win since no one’s physical body gets hurt?
Unfortunately, it’s not so straightforward.
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The AI porn movement highlights a very real shift into something far more ominous than merely presenting an alternative form of porn creation. Though it may minimize the physical harm that porn performers experience daily, AI-generated porn actually only increases the opportunity for exploitation, the creation of child sexual abuse material (more commonly known as “child porn”), porn addiction, and violent ideation and escalation that affects the lives of real people.
AI-generated porn will only exacerbate the problems we are seeing in the attitudes and actions of men, women, teens, and children, as a result of the new widespread ability to create and distribute this easily weaponizable porn.
AI porn is riddled with ethical concerns that present extremely dangerous possibilities for realistic porn to be made in the likeness of anyone with an online social media presence—including children. So let’s break down some of the main problem areas for AI porn.
Deepfake Porn
A type of porn called “deepfake porn” has been amongst one of the most popular uses of AI technology as creators can use the face of one person and superimpose it onto the body of someone else. These images and videos are incredibly real-looking and are often indistinguishable from a real photo or video.
An OnlyFans model by the name of Laura Lux posted a thread on Twitter responding to the recent boom of AI porn. It went viral. She stated, “There’s been a real sort of avalanche of men… implying that they don’t need sex workers anymore because pretty soon they’ll be able to AI-generate a porn video of the hot girl that serves them their coffee every day.” This is obviously deeply problematic as, ultimately, nobody with a social media account is safe from this happening to them.
Deepfake pornography involves the use of advanced algorithms and machine learning to create realistic videos and images of individuals engaged in sexual acts. While the technology behind AI porn is impressive, the consequences of its use are disturbing and far-reaching. According to Sensity.ai, 90% to 95% of this technology is used for non-consensual pornography.
In early April, California introduced legislation that would criminalize using AI to create pornography using someone’s likeness without their consent. Perpetrators would be fined up to $1000 or a year in jail.
Back in February, a popular Twitch streamer was found to have been secretly watching porn featuring female streamers of the Twitch gaming streaming community. Although it is troubling to be caught secretly watching your friends in porn for many reasons, people were shocked to learn that the porn was fake and that the streamers had not consented to its production. In fact, they didn’t even know it existed.
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One female Twitch streamer who discovered herself in deepfake porn said, “I was wishing for eye bleach. I saw myself in positions I would never agree to, doing things I would never want to do.”
Another woman told Australian Women’s Health, “I went on to the porn site in question and scrolled through countless pictures of ‘me’ being abused and humiliated. Someone had taken holiday photos from my Facebook and Insta and uploaded them to a porn site… they said I was a ‘blonde slut’ and they fantasised about seeing me ‘used hard’ by other men. Nothing can describe the shock of seeing yourself be violated. My smiling face – lifted from treasured photos, when I’d been carefree and happy – had been edited onto images of gang rape and strangulation.”
While the porn may be fake, the trauma is real. And due to the nature of the internet, it can never be truly removed.
AI Porn Normalizes Abuse
In addition to deepfakes, AI-generated porn has been used to create videos of simulated rape, incest, and other forms of abuse.
To make matters worse, the fact that creators don’t need to use real people means that they can create sexual acts that could otherwise not be done due to the limitations of the human body and the risk of severe injury. Imagine how much more detrimental the influence of porn that has no physical boundaries could be to young children and teens who are watching porn at earlier and earlier ages.
We already know that porn is a powerful influencer. Numerous studies have shown a strong correlation between pornography viewing and a willingness to rape a girl.
Rebecca* told Exodus Cry, “When I was in middle school, I had a boyfriend who had a serious porn addiction and would send me videos he downloaded off Pornhub…He knocked me unconscious and proceeded to rape me. When I asked him why he did what he did, he told me it was just a kink he caught while watching porn. He said ‘It’s just BDSM, look it up, girls love to get raped and threatened with death.’”
The common narrative in porn is that violence has no consequences or repercussions. Porn does not offer any risk of rape sentences, hospital visits for girls who are physically injured from violent sex, or relational backlash. There is no saying “no” and zero compassion. Porn encourages self-satisfaction at all costs and teaches children that they can commit crimes against another person for the sake of pleasure.
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The psychological harm caused by extreme AI porn cannot be underestimated. Porn sends a message that non-consensual behavior is acceptable or even desirable, which can, and has already, had dangerous consequences for society as a whole.
AI-Generated Child Porn
Even more concerning is the fact that AI technology can be used to create realistic images and videos that exploit minors and other individuals, creating the illusion that they are engaging in sexual acts. These images and videos can be used to produce and distribute illegal content featuring minors performing incredibly violent sexual acts.
United States federal law defines “child pornography,” otherwise known as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor (a person less than 18 years old). The creation and distribution of child pornography, even if it is generated using AI technology, is a serious crime that can result in legal penalties, including imprisonment and fines.
These images can be highly realistic and difficult to distinguish from real photos or videos, causing devastating impacts on not only the children whose faces have been superimposed onto the images but also their families.
In recent years, there has been an exponential increase in CSAM available on the internet and this epidemic is only going to be made worse through the use of AI-generated pornography. Just this past month, a Canadian man pleaded guilty to using deepfake technology to create hundreds of thousands of videos and images of child sexual abuse.
RELATED: Child Sexual Abuse Material, “Child Porn,” Has Reached Crisis Levels
Another AI platform is being criticized for its failure to prevent the creation of CSAM. Lensa is a generative AI application that allows users to upload their headshots and allows the system to create sexually explicit images, despite their “no nudes” policy. Lensa claimed that the abuse and exploitative nature of the program was the result of users’ intentional misconduct, and took no responsibility.
AI porn will undoubtedly increase the amount of CSAM available on the internet. Anyone with a device already has unlimited access to porn, but now AI porn gives anyone the power to actually create this content. Perpetrators and consumers can take the faces of anyone’s kids from social media and create the most vile pornography imaginable. If you have pictures of your kids on social media, they too will be at risk.
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But even if the images and videos are not inspired by a real child, it still sexualizes children and leads to the very real abuse of kids. No matter the format, CSAM is a scourge on society and has life-devastating consequences and implications. Any AI platform that can facilitate the easy creation of this content must be heavily regulated.
A Porn World
Our critique of AI-generated porn is no different than that of non-AI pornography. It all contributes to a culture of sexual exploitation, objectification, and degradation of women’s and children’s bodies, which not only negatively impacts relationships, sexuality, and mental health, but also translates into real-life sexual abuse.
We must hold those who create and distribute AI porn accountable for their actions. Thankfully, there are efforts underway to address the creation and distribution of illegal AI-generated porn. One promising approach is the use of machine learning and other advanced technologies to identify and remove illegal content from the internet.
Another potential solution to addressing non-consensual content lies in a proposed piece of legislation called the Preventing Rampant Online Technological and Criminal Trafficking Act (PROTECT Act) of 2022. The PROTECT ACT fills a gap in current law that allows pornography, without consent, to be uploaded and distributed online. This hole in our legal system has resulted in the victimization and abuse of many women and men, who have no or very few remedies under the current law.
The PROTECT ACT would require websites that allow sexually explicit material to verify consent forms from anyone uploading or appearing in uploaded content and to delete content that has been uploaded without consent.
Sign the petition for Congress to pass the PROTECT ACT to protect victims of non-consensually created porn. This legislation would be the first step towards protecting victims and ensuring illegally created content would be removed promptly from host sites.
Help Girls and Women Exploited in Porn
Exodus Cry actively serves and extends freedom to sexually exploited women, face to face, through our Intervention team. Working with some of the nation’s best therapists, we also provide trauma-informed therapy for women and girls who have been trafficked. In 2021 alone, we provided 300+ hours of specialized trauma therapy to women who had been sexually exploited through sex trafficking and pornography. After just three months, survivors reported, on average:
– 37% decrease in anxiety
– 51% decrease in depression
– 37% decrease in self-harm
– 28% decrease in substance-based coping
– 39% decrease in suicidal thoughts
Help these women build beautiful new lives. By giving today, you will be helping provide top-level trauma-informed therapy for those exploited in porn, trafficking, and the commercial sex industry.
