Artificial intelligence has changed how pornographic content can be produced: instead of merely easing distribution of existing material, AI can generate bespoke images and videos on demand. The Economist recently illustrated this shift with an example that AI can visually realize almost any fantasy, including, hypothetically, a naked, 92-year-old, book-loving, foot‑fetish partner.
Commercial drivers and platforms
While advanced AI models have paying business users, many services remain free or easily accessible at a basic level. xAI, associated with entrepreneur Elon Musk and the platform X, launched a controversial pornographic service last year that remained available to paying users with relatively few restrictions. By contrast, OpenAI, after months of delay, decided at the end of March not to enable erotic content generation for paying adult users.
Some adult websites also use user data to create content: xHamster, for example, generated a virtual character based on responses from 50,000 visitors.
Deepfakes and targeted victims
One of the most serious risks of AI solutions is the spread of deepfake technology. xAI’s model Grok provoked controversy by making it significantly easier to produce highly realistic falsified imagery that depicts real, often unsuspecting people—predominantly girls and women—as nude or in pornographic scenes.
This misuse is proliferating: Indicator, a site tracking digital falsification, found 85 websites in early 2025 offering so-called "nudify" services. Experts estimated these sites attracted 18.5 million visits per month and generated roughly $36 million in revenue over six months.
Market size and growth
The commercial scale of AI-made pornography is substantial. The Global Commerce Media research institute estimated the market for AI-generated pornographic content at about $2.5 billion in 2025 and projected an annual growth rate of around 27 percent through 2028.
Why this matters
AI differs from earlier media technologies because it enables mass production of novel, highly personalized content—not merely wider distribution. That capability includes material that raises legal and ethical concerns and can cause direct harm to identifiable individuals. The technology’s rapid spread therefore calls for regulatory responses, stronger privacy protections, and measures to protect potential victims.
Conclusion
AI-generated pornographic content is growing quickly as a commercial sector and is intensifying the existing deepfake problem. The pace of technological change and the size of the emerging market indicate a need for clearer legal frameworks, more effective content moderation, and targeted protective measures.
