OpenAI's move to allow erotica on ChatGPT could shake up a $65 billion adult entertainment industry that's already struggling to adapt to AI
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Sam Altman's declaration earlier this month that OpenAI would allow for a wider range of content on ChatGPT, including "erotica for verified adults," turned plenty of heads. But in the adult entertainment world, it caused more than a few cases of whiplash.
OpenAI said the change in policy is part of a push to "treat adult users like adults." It comes on the heels of Grok, the chatbot from Elon Musk's xAI, offering explicit conversations with users. While OpenAI has not elaborated on what it has planned in the erotica space, the technology's capabilities could threaten the revenues of the multi-billion-dollar adult industry, which has already seen plenty of upheaval.
"I cannot be flawless and perfect like an AI model that is created to be [that way]," says performer Victoria Peaks.
AI has been creeping along the edges of the porn world for years. As with many new technologies (from streaming video to video chats to the VHS/Betamax war of the 1980s), the adult entertainment industry has acted as something of a proving ground. As far back as two years ago, performer Mia Malkova partnered with a Los Angeles-based startup called Synthetic Turing Experience Technologies (STXT) to launch a chatbot that was called an "AI girlfriend".
The internet is still littered with "AI companion" sites where users can talk with AI versions of adult models. At the same time, a growing number of people are using the graphic and video creation tools AI has democratized to generate AI-created photos and short videos, uploading them to a variety of sites, ranging from Reddit $RDDT to Pornhub.
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On some sites, those go unchallenged. On others, there's a screening process. A PornHub spokesperson told Quartz, "Our AI policies are quite strict. Any imagery that someone attempts to upload to our platforms featuring a photorealistic depiction of an individual would require that person's ID and consent forms to be submitted, as well as a live test performed by a third party to verify the authenticity of the ID and make sure the person using the ID matches the person featured on the ID. An AI generated person would not be able to pass this strict verification process."
AI videos and still images are allowed on OnlyFans, however. The company's terms of service say they must be labeled, but not everyone follows the rules. And some creators look to boost their subscriber counts by using fake images of real people. A study by 404 Media of the site found a significant number of deepfakes and face swaps.
Even when OnlyFans shuts those accounts down, given the number of knockoff sites that have popped up in the wake of that company's success, there's always a home for AI-generated adult content for persistent creators.
Putting aside any ethical debate about adult content, real or artificially generated, the entry of AI into the adult entertainment space could have substantial economic repercussions.
Despite its less than savory reputation, porn has arguably never been such a visible part of the pop culture landscape. Sex toys are sold in corner drug stores. Adult actresses regularly appear on popular television series. And businesses that once operated in the shadows are now multi-billion dollar unicorns.
Putting a hard dollar value on the adult world as a whole has never been easy. That's something that has only grown more challenging in the past decade. Traditional film studios and publishers (like Playboy, Penthouse and Vivid Entertainment), which used to be the industry's biggest names, are shadows of their former selves, in large part due to the proliferation of cam sites and streaming hubs. That said, there are some estimates – and some companies have disclosed firm(ish) numbers to underscore the size of the industry.
The Business Research Co. estimated in January that adult entertainment companies saw collective revenues of $65.95 billion worldwide last year. That's expected to grow to $100.97 billion by 2029.
OnlyFans CEO Kelly Blair, speaking at a Bloomberg Tech conference on Oct. 20, said the company has paid out $25 billion to creators since 2016. (The company generates money by taking a 20% cut of any subscription or content sales. It has been valued at $8 billion.)
While plenty of AI companies have enabled and even encouraged users to create adult content, the entry of industry-leader OpenAI into the market is an entirely different matter. With a valuation of $500 billion, its actions have broader repercussions than many of its competitors. When it announced a new Web browser on Oct. 21, for example, Google $GOOGL saw its market cap drop by $100 billion.
The big mystery, of course, is exactly how far OpenAI plans to dip its toes into the "erotica" waters. Altman's post wasn't clear and the company hasn't expanded on it. Will it be entirely text based? Or will it include the lifelike videos one can create with the Sora 2 tool?
If the extent of OpenAI's push is just a dirty talking chatbot, that likely wouldn't raise many red flags — in the industry or elsewhere. If it does venture into photos or video, though, that could open a Pandora's Box of legal issues.
A growing number of U.S. states require age verification before Internet users can access adult sites — and the U.K.'s Online Safety Act also requires people to prove they're over the age of 18 to access pornographic images. Not all of those laws, though, factor in images or videos where the "participants" aren't technically real people.
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