Ask Ada: How Does the Use of AI Harm Sex Workers?
AI generated images are becoming increasingly popular with sex workers looking for an easy way to improve the photos on their profile listings. The more alluring the image, the better chance of a booking, so it makes sense that feeding an image into an AI image generator platform for some quick and easy enhancement is a popular thing to do. While it sounds good in theory, there are a few things you should be aware of before not only sharing the images, but giving your images to an AI platform in the first place.
AI Image Generators
Photoshop has been a thing for decades now. A little retouch here, a little resizing there, no big deal – a little editing is expected when taking photos. Where AI raises the stakes is not only how it takes what is traditionally a complex task and makes it a single click of a button, but how common it is becoming due to being so simple despite the suspicious quality of its output.
Most clients are seeking genuine and authentic connections. When they encounter a stream of suspiciously too good to be true, or straight up weird-looking images, that connection and trust is eroded. Not only for you, but the entire industry.
AI Text Generators
A similar situation takes place with the words in listings and other text-based interactions. Using something like ChatGPT to help improve your prose can be amazing, but like AI generated images, it can be interpreted as a false representation of who you are. You didn't write those words, or perhaps even come up with the ideas – a robot did – and often those words kinda suck, lacking any personality or humanity.
As it becomes more popular to use AI generated content that looks and sounds like AI generated content, the entire content creation ecosystem suffers from a lack of trust. People won't pay because they don't think what they're getting is real and genuine. More people don't pay, so more AI generated content is used because it's cheap. It's a death spiral in the making.
AI Ethics
Depending on who you ask, AI is either the best thing since sliced bread and will make everyone hyper-productive in ways we can't fathom, or yet another boot on our necks holding us down while extreme AI-fuelled capitalism squeezes the joy out of everything. Both of these takes are true.
AI can be a handy little helper when you're stuck or unsure on what to do. It can also spread misinformation, provide incorrect answers, generate bland output, and cheapen the work of creatives, including sex workers, that already have a hard time making a living.
The businesses behind AI do not respect the creators of the content they suck into their systems. There's multiple lawsuits against OpenAI alone from artists, musicians, and even the New York Times. If the AI industry gives that little of a shit about those types of creators, it's not a surprise that they don't give a damn about sex workers when sex worker content is used to generate deepfake pornography.
These image generators were trained, without permission, on terabytes of pornography sex workers made. Those AI "companions" feed themselves from fanfic, blog posts, and forum discussions created by humans – all without permission, let alone providing financial remuneration to the original creators.
Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't
This blog previously discussed how social media platforms are a necessarily evil for many people, including sex workers. While the platforms themselves are unethical, there's the undeniable fact that they're vital for many who need their reach in order to make a living. Just saying no and opting out of them isn't a realistic option for most people.
AI platforms aren't quite at the same level of importance – yet. While they can be useful and make tasks you're not skilled at a little easier, the output can be very average and misleading to clients. There's also serious issues around consent for the material used to train these AI models.
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