Boys using 'AI girlfriends' to create porn partners

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used by teenage boys to create ‘online girlfriends’ which cater to their pornographic whims.

A conference on technology, pornography, and sexual violence heard that boys could take a photo of any real girl from the likes of social media sites and use that image in the software to create their fake girlfriend.

AI girlfriends let users select the type of relationship preferred, while ‘stepsister’ is the most popular, experts told the conference organised by Ruhama, which provides services to women in the sex trade or victims of human trafficking, reports the Irish Examiner.

Ruth Breslin, director of the Sexual Exploitation Research Programme (SERP) at University College Dublin, told the Examiner that online pornographic material of women being “slapped and strangled” during sex was “becoming normalised”.

She also said there was increasing use of teenagers in adult pornography, which was fuelling the demand for child sex abuse material.

SERP research in second-level schools revealed the popularity of ‘AI Girlfriends’, she said.

Ms Breslin showed images of the women, noting they were “very real” looking. She said there were no age restrictions from accessing the free programme.

She said: “You can ask AI to send a short video of the woman performing any sex act at your command.”

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly told the conference there is an emerging normalisation of violence and sexual violence against women, adding that it involved the “dehumanisation” of girls and women.