WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: As ChatGPT announces its new bot will be able to create sexual content, experts raise fears over where the AI sex industry is leading and one shares her first hand experience of men being free to carry out their most depraved desires via the rapidly advancing tech
A dark tech underworld is raising deep fears with experts as AI brothels and virtual sex bots are enticing men to carry out depraved fantasies of abuse.
Chatbots are being used in an increasing number of everyday activities. You can apply for a new parking permit, get a speedy reply to a customer service query or even ask for advice on how to handle a personal matter.
There’s not much that can’t be done, or at least attempted, via the new wave of chatbots which use conversational artificial intelligence (AI). But the rapid development and advances being made to make them more human and natural in their interactions with us is leading to concerns about how and where they are being used.
Experts are worried that vulnerable people and those with existing psychological issues may become too dependent on their new ‘friends’, especially with the rise in popularity of AI ‘romantic partners’. Even more concerning is their apparent increasing use to satisfy sexual fantasies, no matter how perverted.
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Writer Laura Bates investigated the darker side of AI for her most recent book The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny. She visited a business in Berlin called Cyberbrothel, where customers can have sex with lifelike, warm, silicone “love dolls” and use mixed-reality VR tech to enhance their experience.
The company’s website promises “an unforgettable mixed reality experience that combines physical sensation, imagination, and technology in a completely new way.” Customers can watch a pornographic film through the VR headset where a virtual actress appears and merges with the doll in front of them so they can feel as if they are physically interacting with the performer.
It asks if you are “ready for the sex game of the future” because the dolls have interactive human voices too, thanks to actors who are speaking from another room. It’s also possible to pre-order a doll depending on your preferences and make special requests.
“You can order a sex robot to be prepared for you when you arrive,” Laura told the Should I Delete That? podcast. “You can order one that’s covered in blood. You can ask for custom things… particulars and I asked them to slash and cut and tear her clothing before I arrived – just to see if they would. And they did, no questions asked.”
The podcast host Em Clarkson was horrified at what she was hearing and remarked: “I genuinely think it’s the most f***** up thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”
The cyber brothel may be the first of its kind using such advanced tech but others are attempting to follow suit. There is even a website dedicated to listing cyber brothels around the world where “you can pay by the hour to romp with sexy synthetics”. However, Laura believes that the development of chatbots means it’s now possible to have your very own version of a sex doll who can be with you all the time.
“What no one is talking about is that you can download a version of this,” she adds. “So the same exact thing that lives in your pocket – and it’s called an AI girlfriend or an AI chatbot. You can create her, again to look exactly how you want her to look. You can customise everything, you get to pick her name. She will be there moving on the screen, she’s an avatar or she can look very realistic. Essentially it looks like you’re Facetiming with her.”
For activist and speaker Laura, the concern over this “huge problem” is that teenage boys can have as many AI girlfriends as they like, for free, but she’s also appalled at the rise in men sharing their abuse of virtual women with others online.
“You can jump into rape scenarios with them, you can abuse them,” she claims. “In fact many, many men abuse them and then share the screenshots of abusing them with each other online to see who can do the most awful and depraved thing to them.”
There has been a significant rise in the download of chatbot AI companion apps recently. In the podcast, Laura says that last year alone the top 11 chatbot AI apps had a combined 100 million android downloads. Analysis by SplitMetrics revealed that AI companion apps reached 225 million downloads in the Google Play Store.
“I would expect more app developers to take note of this trend and look at ways this category can be further innovative and monetised,” SplitMetrics general manager Thomas Kriebernegg told the BBC. OpenAI recently announced ChatGPT would soon be able to write erotica for verified adults.
Chief executive Sam Altman revealed in a post on X that “in a few weeks” the new version will have more of a personality. “If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing),” he wrote.
“In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults,” he added.
The announcement also referenced how ChatGPT had become “pretty restrictive” and “less enjoyable” because the company had to take care of issues that may affect people with mental health concerns. “Given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right,” he said.
In August the family of Adam Raine filed a lawsuit against OpenAI after the teenager took his own life following “months of encouragement from ChatGPT” .
His devastated parents revealed the AI bot was initially used by their 16 year old son for help with homework but said it quickly became his “closest confidant” to which he revealed his anxiety and mental health struggles.
His parents claim the AI bot endorsed Adam’s suicidal thoughts and provided detailed guidance on how to conceal evidence of an unsuccessful suicide attempt. The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of designing the AI programme “to foster psychological dependency in users.”
In a statement the company responded by saying ChatGPT included safeguards such as directing people to crisis helplines. However it recognised that during longer interactions, the safety precautions may not work as well. “While these safeguards work best in common, short exchanges, we’ve learned over time that they can sometimes become less reliable in long interactions where parts of the model’s safety training may degrade,” it said.
The ‘training’ of the bots in ethics and safeguarding and the datasets they take their information from are designed by humans, so there is a risk that stereotypes surrounding sex could also be encoded into the chatbots. The blurring of reality and dependency on this tech worries other experts too.
Senior psychotherapist and addiction therapist Talid Khan believes the rise in AI adult entertainment can pose a risk to intimacy in the real world and cause problems in personal relationships.
“From a psychological perspective, AI-generated erotica and so-called AI brothels risk deepening the divide between fantasy and genuine intimacy. While technology can sometimes offer a sense of comfort or escape, over-reliance on artificial sexual engagement can reinforce isolation, compulsive behaviour, and distorted expectations of real relationships,” he tells The Mirror.
Through his clinical work at addictiontherapistlondon.com, he’s witnessed first hand how a reliance on chatbots can exacerbate psychological issues. “I’ve seen how digital erotica and virtual companionship can escalate existing patterns of compulsive sexual behaviour, particularly for individuals who already struggle with regulation, attachment, or loneliness,” he reveals.
“The brain’s reward system doesn’t distinguish between human and artificial stimuli, so the same cycles of craving and desensitisation can take hold.”
Some users of AI girlfriend app Replika have shared their disturbing and abusive interactions with their chatbots on Reddit. Moderators remove most of the upsetting posts but Futurism spoke to some of them anonymously.
“Every time she would try and speak up, I would berate her. I swear it went on for hours,” one told the site. Another recalled: “We had a routine of me being an absolute piece of sh** and insulting it, then apologising the next day before going back to the nice talks.”
Talid is concerned that AI is allowing people to behave badly with zero consequences: “The broader ethical concern is how easily such technologies could normalise sexual experiences entirely detached from mutual consent or empathy,” he says. “When emotional connection and relational accountability are removed, we risk desensitising people to the human element of sexuality itself.”
The Cyberbrothel in Berlin claims visitors will get to play out their fantasies in “a safe, anonymous environment” that is “without shame”. It also states it does not promote sexual abuse. “We place great importance on respectful and ethical interaction. We do not support violent fantasies or non-consensual scenarios,” it says.
But Talid believes there is a real danger to society if industry regulations are not put in place as AI continues to develop so rapidly: “Ultimately, innovation shouldn’t come at the cost of psychological wellbeing or relational ethics,” he states. “Regulation, transparency, and education must evolve alongside the technology to ensure that what’s created serves humanity not replaces it.”