A disturbing new trend online is the proliferation of fake AI-generated pornographic images of famous celebrities or quasi-famous social media influencers.
The latest victim of this trend was Bobbi Althoff, a podcast host who has gone viral for her emotionless interviews with celebrities, especially rap artists such as Drake, Lil Yachty, and Offset. What purported to be “leaked” images of Althoff pushed her name to the list of trending topics on X, even as it was pointed out that the images were AI-generated fakes.
It should be made abundantly clear that Althoff, who by all indications has never published a nude photograph of herself, is a victim of a serious cultural problem that should be a crime if it is not already.
Nevertheless, in a heavily sexualized culture that encourages people, but especially women, to use their physical appearance as a means to amass large social media followings and fame, it is little surprise that the fake images of Althoff generated such buzz online. The demand is built into a sizable portion of her following.
Althoff is, by the nature of her platform, a cultural influencer with a massive audience that exceeds just her podcast. She has 7.2 million followers on TikTok and 3.1 million followers on Instagram, and her posts on both platforms generate thousands of impressions, likes, and comments from her followers. And there are hundreds of other influencers like her who post a wide range of content, ranging from lip-sync and dance videos to funny skits and more professionally produced content such as travel vlogs, product promotions, and photo shoots.
But driving all of the engagement with this social media content is the personality and, yes, the physical appearance of the influencer, which brings us back to the proliferation of AI pornography.
AI-generated pornographic images go viral because a sizable number of people, particularly men, who follow social media influencers do so because they are sexually attracted to them. It is a crowd that seeks out the provocative and revealing posts that people typically associate with Instagram models and that are commonplace for most influencers. In other words, they want to see sexually appealing content.
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The way people interact with social media influencers such as Althoff is among the most disturbing cultural diseases that could possibly be conceived. A scroll through the comments on one of her posts is to see among the most vile things that anyone could think to say to another human being. And while nasty internet comments are nothing new, it is worth pointing out that when someone is profiting off of their physical appearance, even in innocuous-looking dance videos, it invites the most lustful and sexually perverse characters on the internet who are eager to ogle at a brand new face.
And by all accounts, that’s a good chunk of internet users. After all, pornography sites drew more visits in 2023 than X, Wikipedia, TikTok, Instagram, and Amazon. And it is those same internet users who flood the comments of influencers, including Althoff, and project their perverse sexual desires onto her and others in eager anticipation that they will join the ranks of celebrities and influencers who have publicly shared pornography. AI-generated images will suffice when the real thing is not immediately available.