Remember the website This Person Does Not Exist which, when visited, greeted browsers with the face of a stranger, one that would then completely change when the page was refreshed with a new stranger’s face? Those faces were all deepfakes developed by algorithms, hence the name of the website. Since it appeared, there has been an influx in computer-generated images. The creator of This Person Does Not Exist, Phil Wang, made the site using a new development in machine learning called Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). GAN forces two data sets to compete with each other in a game, encouraging each strand to learn from the other’s mistakes.
To train GAN, you feed it images of things you would like to generate more of, and it then simultaneously tries to generate images and learns how to distinguish its own images from the real ones (so to stay true to the original form or idea, in a sense).
As with many AI models, GANs require a large amount of data—the more data, the more variation. As a concept, this is both interesting and potentially useful, depending on what GAN is used for. However, collections of naked women that have been collected from porn production companies are being used to generate deepfake porn. The porn production companies involved in this new problematic doing have also previously been accused of forcefully coercing women to have sex on camera without their consent. Just so you can get an idea of the characters we’re dealing with here.
The dataset that is circulating in deepfake porn creation communities online includes images scraped from the porn production company Czech Casting in particular, which local police have accused of human trafficking and rape as well as trafficking still images from other porn sites. Czech Casting’s founder is currently a fugitive on the FBI’s most-wanted list.
Much like This Person Does Not Exist, the dataset is being used to create photorealistic images of women, but nude, who aren’t real and who all don’t look like any one person. Essentially, it’s porn generated entirely by AI: deepfakes porn, or deepnudes as we once named the same concept. Because of this, these algorithmically-generated images that are created aren’t technically doing much harm as they are not ‘real people’. However, legal experts, technologists and the women included in the datasets describe these creations as uniquely dehumanising.
Honza Červenka, a lawyer at the McAllister Olivarius law firm who specialises in revenge porn and technology has been following Czech Casting’s case. He told Vice that the idea of these images being less harmful because of being run through an algorithm makes them “anonymised” is a red herring. He said that “It’s mad science really, and completely and utterly re-victimizing to the victims of the Czech Casting perpetrators.”
The Czech Casting case does not stand alone, as it is simply impossible for technology to reverse in its tracks, meaning that this technology will undoubtedly develop. For now, GAN is incapable of generating videos similar to real porn videos, the best it can do is generate images. Going forward, there are several issues associated with algorithmic-generated porn. In the long run though, the difference between real and computer-generated videos will shrink until AI-generated porn potentially becomes mainstream.
Studio-made pornography may still exist, but it might become more of a niche interest for people who want to watch ‘real people have real sex’ instead of computer-generated videos. Recruitment agencies and production companies might start to lean towards companies that are involved in this AI-generated pornography and possibly provide them with data.
A huge issue with the algorithms used to create this kind of porn is that because programming is variable, the technology has the worrying potential of being used to target people, within any criteria. The algorithm can only produce things that it has seen before though, as this is how GAN generates data, however, the potential remains.
Computer scientist and co-founder of SketchDeck, David Mack, attempted to build an AI that generated porn and wrote an article on his experience. In it, he reflected on the fact that on a macro scale, if his project were a success, it had the potential to change the world. “Many people are harmed in the production of pornography, and this project (given the very low cost of producing new images) would supplant them. Pornography would harm fewer people.”
However on the other side, he wrote that “this would displace workers and reshape an industry.” He concluded that he had struck a corner of hypocrisy within our society and technology. Pornography is a major part of the internet’s usage and people’s daily lives, this new technology could potentially improve the darker and more dangerous sides to the porn industry, such as sexual abuse and trafficking.
All in all, there are benefits to the idea, but while the porn industry abuses the women within it, like in the Czech Casting case among others, the negatives outride the benefits—without a fully ethical support system to generate the data for the project, its future remains unclear. One thing we know for sure is that this tech and the industries it circles within will move fast.
With the rise of technology and the many pornographic platforms that it brought with it, many people developed an interest in sex simulators, which are described as adult virtual and augmented reality interactive experiences or games where users can play with different characters in sexual ways. In simpler words, sex simulators are basically VR porn games—and people go crazy for them. But why is that and how big is the VR porn gaming market?
If you’ve never heard of VR porn games and other types of sex games before, it probably means you’ve never had a crush on a video game’s character. Never thought that Princess Zelda was extra cute in that white dress she wore for the first time in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Me neither, but as it turns out, many gamers did. To be clear here, I’m not kink-shaming, they can like whatever they want to as long as no one gets hurt.
In a way that is not so dissimilar to Virtual Mate, a virtual partner aimed at heterosexual male users that comes with a high tech fleshlight, VR porn games lets users discover a highly detailed gaming world through their Oculus Quest or another virtual reality headset and allows them to realise their own secret fantasies with whatever character they’re into.
The world of adult VR games is already wide and full of diverse options for potential players. From Femdomination, a simulation game where women are in control, to Mandy’s Room, a game where users can stay in the same room as the main character named Mandy while she plays, dances, and “gets naughty” or Besti, which is an interactive and very specific my little pony fetish VR game, it is safe to say that sex games enthusiasts can find whatever they’re looking for.
Waifu Sex Simulator is a VR porn game built-off a modified version of MocuMocuDance which lets users import and pose a wide variety of 3D models, whether to touch them or cast them into predefined animations. The game also supports custom model imports, which means players can simulate sex with any character, from Mario Kart’s Yoshi to The Legend of Zelda’s famous Princess Zelda.
Captain Hardcore is also well-known in the sex games industry. Developed by AntiZeroGames, the game tasks players with exploring the universe while also spending sexy time with the “hottest and most depraved space sluts” you can find out there. In other words, Captain Hardcore lets players customize female characters and play with them or use the “cyber-masturbatorium” to pose models in erotic scenes and watch.
While many of those sex simulators are still being worked on in order for them to be even more realistic, the industry of VR sex games is certainly one to watch. As more and more gamers feel like they can truly fulfil their sexual fantasies through their VR headsets, who knows? One day, we might all turn to sex simulators to search for new experiences too.