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Worth noting that - mostly - punters weren't having real interactions with the models anyway. As the article points out, they'd previously reported (and I think

Worth noting that - mostly - punters weren't having real interactions with the models anyway. As the article points out, they'd previously reported (and I think HN had linked to the story) that a large number of models had been outsourcing their DM interactions to a rotating cadre of gig-workers already. And as the gig workers wouldn't be able to keep track of the full chat history between each punter and "the model", the conversations could sometimes feel off, or have long-term inconsistencies. I guess LLM hallucinations will just give a slightly different flavour of unreal interactions.

xethos 2y ago
IIRC (from mobile), it was a different article from Wired that corroborated this, with a surprising disagreement (from what you mentioned) being that the gig-workers would keep notes that are attached and shared. The notes are per-... random? I suppose they'd be called? The gig-worker's customer is the streamer (or agency) that pays them, so I don't have a better name for the hoarde of people they're meant to be chatting with Though I don't doubt that less careful (or less well-paid) gig-chatters exist and can have a slightly different feel when handing off a random at shift-change
- PoignardAzur 2y ago
  It's kind of fascinating to consider the level of automation and UI affordances you can apply to faking authentic human contact.
echelon 2y ago
> real interactions with the models anyway The next step is not having real models at all. It'll be 100% AI all the way up and down the stack. Completely AI porn is going to be booming business. PornHub, OnlyFans, and perhaps even some dating websites will be "innovator's dilemma"'d out.
- add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
  Maybe I'm a hopeless optimist but I think the novelty of this will wear off too quickly for it to become the future. People will have to realize the emptiness of it. I need to believe that.
  - remoroid 2y ago
    It won't. Conservatively over 60% of young men are single. The real number if you remove men that have had maybe one relationship or encounter in a multi-year span is 80% or more. The lie you will hear is that men are choosing OnlyFans over a relationship. There is no choice. They can't get a relationship.
    - add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
      None of that supports the idea that people will remain interested in talking to bots long term. We have unmet transportation needs, but the hype of the Segway didn't allow it to take over the world.
      - echelon 2y ago
        > but the hype of the Segway didn't allow it to take over the world. That was just a product / form factor thing: Bird and Lime scooters are everywhere in my city. And, moreover, lots of people use personal scooters, e-bikes, hoverboards, electric skateboards, Onewheel, electric unicycles, etc. I don't go a day without seeing these things. It'll be the exact same with this technology. Give it a few years and more men will be using AI chatbots and AI porn than the existing tools in the space, such as PornHub and OnlyFans. > the idea that people will remain interested in talking to bots long term Porn has never gone away, it's only grown. AI porn can match a person's exact preferences in an unparalleled way that hasn't been possible before. Add in VR, photorealism, voices, and trainable agentic behavior and you've got a market that will likely contribute to the decline of real, actual relationships and marriages. More men will probably be using AI porn over actual sex, too, due to difficulties with dating, dead bedrooms, etc. I'd be willing to place bets on marriage numbers going into a steep decline over the next decade.
- sensanaty 2y ago
  I actually got approached for a job for a "virtual girlfriend" site. Paid amazingly well too, and the user numbers were mind blowing to me, but it felt scummier than working for a gambling site to me.
- bad_haircut72 2y ago
  CD players did not spell the end of live music. I have never really understood people who pay money to OnlyFans models but I do think its not just to see some boobs on a screen? its to experience a (para)social relationship with another person.
  - kevinventullo 2y ago
    On the other hand it is not completely trivial to determine whether a live performance is really live versus the artist lip-syncing.
    - elevatedastalt 2y ago
      Most of the experience of a live performance (especially for pop artists) is in being there, with a crowd, and the soundscape of a giant auditorium or stadium, so the lip-syncing doesn't matter much either way.
  - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
    AI can almost handle the social relationship with another person already. Things are going to get weird.
  - hmmm-i-wonder 2y ago
    I just don't get parasocial relationships. Do people honestly convince themselves some stranger performing on the internet in a very one way relationship somehow truly cares about them and not their ability to monetize.
    - im3w1l 2y ago
      I think it's a case of the conscious mind knowingly tricking the subconscious mind. Because doing so feels good. Compare with artificial sweeteners.
andirk 2y ago
I assume in this case, you are saying "the model" to mean the human Only Fans account holder and not an ML model in which the fake models are trained on? Something funny about clarifying that too.
- thephyber 2y ago
  Yes, “the model” here appears to refer to the person who owns the OnlyFans channel.
  - phkahler 2y ago
    As I contemplate using AI tools to generate images to start an OnlyFans, I see the irony where first they outsourced to Chatters, then replaced the chatters with AI and next we will replace their hotness with AI models. I'm sure this is already happening.
    - genewitch 2y ago
      If AI could have a bank account then bots could subscribe to bots and talk with other bots that aren't the bot they're subscribed to and summarize it for humans.
      - tbrownaw 2y ago
        Maybe they can't have real bank accounts (well, not without fraudulent IDs), but nothing stops them from having cryptocoin wallets.
        mentalpiracy 2y ago
        incredible cyberpunk concept
    - thephyber 2y ago
      Yeah, there are already “influencers” which are AI improved clones of existing influencers (without the original model’s consent). So in addition to looking perfect, curating their perfect existence, pleasing sponsors, keeping the attention of the masses, scaling up their ability to respond in a timely way to fans, content creators now need to police their IP from being stolen by other “creators” (and not just the fans). Chatters-for-hire were always questionable. Some are cheap labor in cheap English-speaking countries. But I’ve also seen that vendors that offer chatter services have difficulty with quality control (of the chats), causing the OnlyFans channel to drop the chatters and apologize for the breach of trust to paying fans. That said, I imagine there is a LOT of value in identifying high quality leads/chats to be prioritized and ignoring/ blocking the lowest quality (eg. Insurers and time wasters).

xethos 2y ago

IIRC (from mobile), it was a different article from Wired that corroborated this, with a surprising disagreement (from what you mentioned) being that the gig-workers would keep notes that are attached and shared. The notes are per-... random? I suppose they'd be called? The gig-worker's customer is the streamer (or agency) that pays them, so I don't have a better name for the hoarde of people they're meant to be chatting with Though I don't doubt that less careful (or less well-paid) gig-chatters exist and can have a slightly different feel when handing off a random at shift-change

PoignardAzur 2y ago
It's kind of fascinating to consider the level of automation and UI affordances you can apply to faking authentic human contact.

echelon 2y ago

> real interactions with the models anyway The next step is not having real models at all. It'll be 100% AI all the way up and down the stack. Completely AI porn is going to be booming business. PornHub, OnlyFans, and perhaps even some dating websites will be "innovator's dilemma"'d out.

add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
Maybe I'm a hopeless optimist but I think the novelty of this will wear off too quickly for it to become the future. People will have to realize the emptiness of it. I need to believe that.
- remoroid 2y ago
  It won't. Conservatively over 60% of young men are single. The real number if you remove men that have had maybe one relationship or encounter in a multi-year span is 80% or more. The lie you will hear is that men are choosing OnlyFans over a relationship. There is no choice. They can't get a relationship.
  - add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
    None of that supports the idea that people will remain interested in talking to bots long term. We have unmet transportation needs, but the hype of the Segway didn't allow it to take over the world.
    - echelon 2y ago
      > but the hype of the Segway didn't allow it to take over the world. That was just a product / form factor thing: Bird and Lime scooters are everywhere in my city. And, moreover, lots of people use personal scooters, e-bikes, hoverboards, electric skateboards, Onewheel, electric unicycles, etc. I don't go a day without seeing these things. It'll be the exact same with this technology. Give it a few years and more men will be using AI chatbots and AI porn than the existing tools in the space, such as PornHub and OnlyFans. > the idea that people will remain interested in talking to bots long term Porn has never gone away, it's only grown. AI porn can match a person's exact preferences in an unparalleled way that hasn't been possible before. Add in VR, photorealism, voices, and trainable agentic behavior and you've got a market that will likely contribute to the decline of real, actual relationships and marriages. More men will probably be using AI porn over actual sex, too, due to difficulties with dating, dead bedrooms, etc. I'd be willing to place bets on marriage numbers going into a steep decline over the next decade.
sensanaty 2y ago
I actually got approached for a job for a "virtual girlfriend" site. Paid amazingly well too, and the user numbers were mind blowing to me, but it felt scummier than working for a gambling site to me.
bad_haircut72 2y ago
CD players did not spell the end of live music. I have never really understood people who pay money to OnlyFans models but I do think its not just to see some boobs on a screen? its to experience a (para)social relationship with another person.
- kevinventullo 2y ago
  On the other hand it is not completely trivial to determine whether a live performance is really live versus the artist lip-syncing.
  - elevatedastalt 2y ago
    Most of the experience of a live performance (especially for pop artists) is in being there, with a crowd, and the soundscape of a giant auditorium or stadium, so the lip-syncing doesn't matter much either way.
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  AI can almost handle the social relationship with another person already. Things are going to get weird.
- hmmm-i-wonder 2y ago
  I just don't get parasocial relationships. Do people honestly convince themselves some stranger performing on the internet in a very one way relationship somehow truly cares about them and not their ability to monetize.
  - im3w1l 2y ago
    I think it's a case of the conscious mind knowingly tricking the subconscious mind. Because doing so feels good. Compare with artificial sweeteners.

andirk 2y ago

I assume in this case, you are saying "the model" to mean the human Only Fans account holder and not an ML model in which the fake models are trained on? Something funny about clarifying that too.

thephyber 2y ago
Yes, “the model” here appears to refer to the person who owns the OnlyFans channel.
- phkahler 2y ago
  As I contemplate using AI tools to generate images to start an OnlyFans, I see the irony where first they outsourced to Chatters, then replaced the chatters with AI and next we will replace their hotness with AI models. I'm sure this is already happening.
  - genewitch 2y ago
    If AI could have a bank account then bots could subscribe to bots and talk with other bots that aren't the bot they're subscribed to and summarize it for humans.
    - tbrownaw 2y ago
      Maybe they can't have real bank accounts (well, not without fraudulent IDs), but nothing stops them from having cryptocoin wallets.
      - mentalpiracy 2y ago
        incredible cyberpunk concept
  - thephyber 2y ago
    Yeah, there are already “influencers” which are AI improved clones of existing influencers (without the original model’s consent). So in addition to looking perfect, curating their perfect existence, pleasing sponsors, keeping the attention of the masses, scaling up their ability to respond in a timely way to fans, content creators now need to police their IP from being stolen by other “creators” (and not just the fans). Chatters-for-hire were always questionable. Some are cheap labor in cheap English-speaking countries. But I’ve also seen that vendors that offer chatter services have difficulty with quality control (of the chats), causing the OnlyFans channel to drop the chatters and apologize for the breach of trust to paying fans. That said, I imagine there is a LOT of value in identifying high quality leads/chats to be prioritized and ignoring/ blocking the lowest quality (eg. Insurers and time wasters).