It seems that pornography and technology go together. Over the last few decades this point became clear.
The video cassette rental era was propelled by pornography. Some of the earliest video rental stores had the adult section, which was a popular destination.
Web 2.0 was enhanced by the Porn 2.0. This was the age where amateur videos were created and uploaded. PornHub was the adult version of YouTube, paying content creators based upon clicks.
Suddenly, anyone who desired could become an adult creator. This also led to the explosion of OnlyFans, an adult site that allows individuals to offer their video wares.
The march of technology keeps going. I guess this means it also applies to porn.
What impact will AI have on the industry?
The intersection of AI and pornography is evolving rapidly, driven by generative technologies like Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and video models such as Sora. By 2025, AI-generated adult content has already flooded online platforms, with projections estimating 8 million deepfakes shared this year—up from 500,000 in 2023—and the vast majority being pornographic.
We are seeing the potential for the next generation to be hyper-personalized. This is no different than what AI is offering in every realm. Prompting will eventually lead to whatever content one is seeking, adult or otherwise.
Are we about to see the end of pornography? It seems unlikely since this is something, in the many forms, that persisted for more than 200 years.
That means we are going to see another transformation. What it will look like is speculative.
We are going to see the end of human created content. Naturally, it will not go away 100%.
However, as the technology improves, the majority of the consumed material will be AI generated. The bar is set even lower than with non-adult video. While AI has a long way to achieve cinema quality films, replicating a porn scene is far easier.
I mean seriously, it is unlikely viewers are critiquing the cinema quality and the exactness of the scene.
In other words, close is good enough.
For an industry that is highly exploitive, this is a benefit. One does not have to search too far to find the horror stories of what porn did to those involved in the industry.
That said, it does remove a basis of income for many. While this is likely a positive from a societal view, it could be a setback for many individuals. It is no different, however, that what most face with AI. My opinion is that it will destroy most knowledge work.
While the amount of human content will dwindle, there will be an explosion in total volume. Again, this is in keeping with most other industries. Chatbots are pumping out information at a rate never seen before. Image generators are keeping pace as they improve. Video generation still lags but the gap will close in the next few years.
What is created?
The majority will be non-adult content but there will still be a significant amount of other latter.
After all, a majority of the online traffic is still relating to pornography. More than 3 decades after the Internet came into being and the original killer use case is still chugging along.
