This Post is Not About AI Porn

One way to be sure just about anything new in media tech has legs: Pornography is flourishing with it. In a report on 404 Media, Emanual Maiberg does evocative work detailing the horrifying side of AI generated porn.

Thdr; 

Our investigation shows the current state of the non-consensual AI porn supply chain: specific Reddit communities that are being scraped for images, the platforms that monetize these AI models and images, and the open source technology that makes it possible to easily generate non-consensual sexual images of celebrities, influencers, YouTubers, and athletes.

I can’t help but worry about a growing cadre of isolated, recently politically-radicalized men diving into this rabbit hole, and deepening their mania to such an extent that it pulls apart the last sinews of their tenuous grip on reality. 

It stands to reason, though, that not all AI porn is created with flagrantly evil intent. Considering an internet economy that, in my view, will only accelerate toward fragmentation driven by community policy differences and varying interaction techniques, we would be wise to consider this new-ish form of vice strategically. 

The point I’ll attempt to demonstrate here: The rubric for building engaged audiences around emerging media tech is nearly universal. It might be funny to most people that porn beats everyone else to the punch time after time. But for the media industry, this phenomenon reflects a systematic failure of organizational imagination that keeps us always a step behind emerging players in tech. 

So, what can we learn about why it's been a catchy X-rated use case and how might we apply that to your probably G-rated job? To get there, we should start by finding the right question to answer. Here’s my version of it: 

Considering AI porn that is not based on sexual abuse, what aspects of human desire do these products satisfy?

1. Demonstrate that you understand my imagination
2. Surprise me with a reflection of my own imagination
3. Demonstrate my imagination to like-minded peers who appreciate my efforts
4. Opportunity to improve over time: The true secrets to winning this “game” [i.e. creating better prompts] are uncertain to everyone and probably evolving
5. Opportunity to connect with your community: Share something new and novel you made with others

From my point of view, that sounds like a great model for a wide range of AI products, not just the naked ones. In fact, it already is! That doesn’t quite get us to where we’re trying to go, though, in case you forgot the purpose of MoP: How should I think about using AI for my job? 

Broadly, at the time of publication here, the most typical ideal use of AI tooling in professional media will come from the addition of a new ideation phase:

After agreeing on the specs of a work product… 

Hey team, here is the AI reflection of what I imagined…

-It’s kinda funky, though. I was actually expecting something more like this…

-But what I like about the AI’s take was these little elements…

-Anyone else have better luck with their prompts? 

-Anything about the AI’s take on your idea that you thought was pretty good? — let’s go around the room on that. 

-Okay, so is there anything the AI added that we want to add to our requirements? 

-Does anyone feel like their original idea is less viable now that they’ve seen it mocked up fairly well by an automated idiot? 

-Okay, let's take a shot at making a real draft of this with our new requirements. 

-Oh, Shawna, can I talk to you afterwards? How did you get that weird rail out of yours? 

This is the best way to use AI in the content creation process – at least right now. 

Porn has an unmatched financial incentive to move incredibly fast to implement interactive practices that scale well. When the sex industry is all over something new, take it as a hint that something about the tech scales well with the right templates. 

But really, this doesn’t have very much to do with porn at all — the same way mining doesn’t have much to do with canaries.