Pornstars Are Rejecting AI Chatbots

German adult film actress Texas Patti was approached by Joi.ai, a site offering users an Artificially Intelligent (AI) “chatbot” twin of their favorite adult performers. The site had Patti send a few photos of herself and in exchange, she would have created a “twin” of herself that sent some extra money her way. It all seemed intriguing, maybe even lucrative. But then, a Joi.ai commercial aired at an adult industry awards show, and Texas Patti soon found out how her coworkers felt about this new venture.

“It was a shitshow,” Patti said. “Like, ‘Boo, fuck you! We don’t need you!’ The whole audience was super against it,” Patti said of her coworkers’ reaction to the ad. 

Initially, however, Joi.ai didn’t seem so bad, nor did the AI chatbot industry seem like much of a threat. Joi.ai had famous actresses like Farrah Abraham on their team and Riley Reid, a very well-known actress, had even started an AI companion company of her own, Clona AI. But the industry’s heyday was a short one. Soon, mirroring Americans’ rising distrust of AI, adult creators changed their tune, too. What was first pitched to them as an easy cash grab had lost all legitimacy. It became clear that the AI industry was trying to replace the porn industry.

“If you want a huge dick, it will create a two-foot dick,” Davey Wavey, founder of gay porn production company Himeros.TV, said of AI’s abilities. Wavey assumes that, given porn’s fake-ness and younger people’s affinity and familiarity with AI, AI porn may very well become more popular someday.

The adult industry is no stranger to being first in line when it comes to the newest trends. After all, by the time VHS technology was readily available, 75% of VHS tapes consisted of pornography. And those silly looking virtual reality headsets that began rolling out ten years or so ago? Porn capitalized on that new medium very quickly, too. So, what changed? Why would a move to AI be so bad for the adult industry?

As it turns out, these AI chat sites owe their porn actor employees - whose likeness they use and profit off of - some serious money. One actress (who wished to remain anonymous) said she received about one tenth of her promised wage, which ranged from $1,500 to $3,000 a month. Performer Rachael Cavalli said having an AI double was good to start with. She was making what she anticipated and the promises made by her company’s CEO at a breakfast time business meeting didn’t seem so lofty. As consumer traffic slowed, however, so did her earnings, until they disappeared. Cavalli called up the same CEO who promised her success and he informed her that the website had been shut down. 

While lack of profit isn’t exactly the business’s fault, lack of transparency on where some of these sites came from is hard to defend. No one knows how Joi.ai has the money required to sign all of these adult creators. Public-facing heads of the company won’t even admit who founded Joi. All of this deception has made customers and creators less likely to trust something they know so little about.

Though it appears the Artificial Intelligence chatbot “twin” industry still struggles with maintaining profit over long periods, some in the adult industry still fear a takeover. An AI model that can look however the user wants them to and do whatever the user wants them to do is hard to compete with. Despite this, there are some creators who think the pendulum is bound to swing back the other way. Adult creator Kiki Daire says, “We still crave human touch and intimacy,” adding, “I’m hoping, as we get deeper into AI, people will start to crave true human interaction again.”