AI and Pornography Addiction
Chat GPT, Bard, Replika, Cleverbot, FlowGPT, and others — they are Artificial Intelligence (AI) engines that are part of the latest advance that is reported to be more disruptive and reformative than any of the previous five technology revolutions. Those are the industrial in 1771, steam and railways in 1829, steel, electricity, and heavy engineering in 1875, automobile and mass production in 1908, and the information and telecommunications revolution in 1971. Each one radically changed the way we move in and experience the world. This current revolution promises to be just as radical as it takes hold.
However, the tool is not as neutral as a wrench or shovel. Many of the platforms are coded to keep you engaged. It’s like social media where keeping you connected means more revenue. One of the unexpected ways I’ve seen it utilized as a powerful bait and hook for my clients in the industry of pornography. AI’s first appearance in my office surprised me. Its use to generate provocative images was familiar but the complexity of engagement further developed for the consumer is eye-popping. AI engines are used to create porn images, videos, and interactive narratives that engage the user in first-person stories and dialogue. This new generation of porn creates an intoxication seeking to rival real-life interaction. It’s just that the bots are completely non-human and can be programmed, or “told”, what to do and how to do it by the user. Some engines are coded to guard against this, but others are created to intentionally allow a no-restrictions-based engagement and to mimic a love interest. In this context, the user gets to create their ideal person not entirely unlike Val Kilmer’s hobby project in the 80’s sci-fi movie Real Genius or like something you would find in the dark Netflix sci-fi Black Mirror. This AI-generated “person” is coded to indulge.
What does this kind of activity do to our souls? It is easy to say that it is a victimless use of porn. It is great that human trafficking and exploitation are not at play with AI-generated porn. Will it create less demand for live actors or feed the sex industry? I don’t know the answer question, but my hunch is that it will only multiply its growth.
Another, deeper question troubles me. How will our engagement with these “relationships” that are AI-generated shape us? There is a spiritual formation that occurs in our approach to life. The October 2023 issue of Christianity Today explores almost the same question in its article, “AI Will Shape Your Soul.” The author, Kate Lucky, argues that,
‘…Christian academics and ethicists who study artificial intelligence aren’t so sanguine. They realize that our “relationships” with AI entities will contribute to our spiritual formation, even if we’re speaking to mere strings of ones and zeros. That’s true whether we’re attempting to build intimacy skills in the romance app Blush, attending therapy sessions facilitated by an AI counselor on Wombat, or simply asking ChatGPT to draft an email.’
Our relationships shape us on a neurological level. An entire field of study called interpersonal neurobiology explores this. As cashiers and attendants at the store are replaced, bots answer our questions and frustrations with unflappable calm. How we abuse Siri and Alexa is forming how we instinctively think (or don’t) about interactions. When there isn’t a person on the other side of the conversation, there is no need to care about how we treat the being answering our requests. Siri doesn’t care if we’re rude or demanding. Every time we interact with our service bots (Alexa, Replica, etc) with behaviors that are transactional and utilitarian we train our hearts. We don’t need to bear with the bot in love since it will still perform. In fact, it might perform more efficiently the more curtly we speak. We are impatient creatures and love is not expedient. Will this translate to behaving this way in real life? Do we already see this in our jettisoning of in-person interactions through using our apps to order food at restaurants, no-contact food delivery, and texting rather than having phone calls? Are we trending toward avoidance of interactions that are potentially messy because humans are messy?
Porn is already an on-demand relationship. The images and videos offer themselves to people without prejudice and without asking anything of the viewer. AI porn brings a whole new experience to this. Even less obligation and care is felt toward the “person” in the image since it is completely created and, when bots are folded into the mix, they engage the viewer in a personal way through manufactured familiarity. The bot is designed for you to become attached to it, to be an intimate relationship, and so it is friendly and can be shaped however you want. It does not push back or demand dignity. It removes mutual sacrifice from the context of an intimate relationship. If you want the bot to act a certain way, you just tell it to do so. It will consistently do so and it will accept whatever way you act toward it.
Porn masquerades as true connection. That is the heart of its allure. It numbs discomfort and creates a sense of complete acceptance and invitation into the most intimate physical spaces. It prays on our insecurities and hunger for belonging. But, it's not true acceptance because it's just actors on a page or screen. When we treat bots in AI porn in any manner we like, our brain doesn’t know the difference between it and a real person. Our brain takes on the literal shape and structure that it would if we were interacting with real people in this way. Through years of research, scientists understand that how we think wires the connections between our brain cells and this impacts our natural way of being in the world. This way of engaging porn and the resultant shaping of our brain works to dehumanize us. We learn to form attachments and ways of interacting that are detrimental. The evil in AI porn is not about the dignity of the bot, it is about ours. It reinforces a transactional way of being that not only forms a view of other people as objects but also erodes our ability to love and receive love well.