Generative AI is embedding itself into products we use every day, and change is happening at a rapid pace. Many innovations in how we consume content online, perhaps unsurprisingly, have their roots in porn. According to Glimpse data, interest in AI porn began trending in November 2022, at the exact same time ChatGPT started trending on Google.

We didn’t need large language models to tell us that AI porn is on the horizon. The writing was on the wall, in the form of V-tubers.

A V-tuber, or Virtual YouTuber, is an online entertainer that uses a virtual avatar to represent themselves in online videos or content. The avatar is typically anime-inspired, with physically impossible proportions.

The fantasy allure of V-tubers isn’t limited to cyberspace. Fleshlight released a stroker based on the V-tuber Lilith Fukumoto. The company’s other clones feature 3D molds of real porn star’s vulvas on the outside, with fantasy textures on the inside of the sleeve. Lilith’s mold features “Shokushu” (tentacle) texture. Add-ons allow the unit to perform in sync with a video library.

So who’s driving the demand for virtual porn, anyway?

In real life, there are dedicated anime conventions just for V-tubers and their fans. OffKai just took place in San Jose over the weekend. The stereotype of the anime fan as a socially awkward, involuntarily celibate gamer didn’t come from nowhere. Incels.is is an online forum dedicated to “people who lack a significant other,” although it’s important to note that not every romantically single person is celibate or self-identifies as an incel. Nor does the average single person subscribe to the racist and misogynist views perpetuated in incel spaces.

Incel culture overlaps heavily with online gaming and anime communities. Despite their common denominator being a lack of success in romantically pursuing women despite efforts (so they say), the group is divided on the role of AI in alleviating their loneliness. One user wrote, “Chatting with AI girls is the future of inceldom.” This perspective removes the possibility that inceldom is something they can work their way out of by learning to interact with women, but I digress. Another user wrote, “I’d fuck one but I wouldn’t gaslight myself into thinking it’s a human or has feelings.” One thread bemoans the relative lack of diversity of body types in AI girlfriends, with one user writing that AI shamed him for even wanting a fat partner.

Absent a liking or upvoting system, it’s hard to tell how many individuals on the platform agree with any given take. But engagement on a post titled “You can’t be incel and anti AI” suggests that adoption of AI in all facets of life – from productivity to pornography – is central to the ideology.

The question is: Will people with offline social lives embrace AI porn the same way they’ve taken to porn featuring real people?