Group of Sex industry professionals and advocates issued an open letter to EU regulators on Thursday, arguing that their views are being ignored in vital discussions about the governance of AI technology, even though they are also involved in the huge growth of AI.
The group includes erotic film director Erika Lust’s company as well as the European Alliance for Sex Workers’ Rights campaign and is a signatory to the Open Mind AI initiative. The group aims to alert the commission to what it says is a “critical gap” in discussions about AI regulation. Those coordinating the campaign say the current discussion strategy risks shutting out a first-hand perspective on adult content and over-regulating an already marginalized community.
“AI is evolving every day [and] we see new developments around every corner,” said Ana Ornelas, a Berlin-based erotica author and educator who goes by the pseudonym Pimenta Cítrica and who is one of the initiative’s leaders. “It’s only natural that people turn to this new technology to satisfy their fantasies.”
But deepfakes are now a major threat to AI. Ninety-six percent of them involved “porn” without consent, mostly of women and girls. This is “extremely harmful” to those targeted as well as to porn performers, Ornelas says. “This is a threat to both their human integrity and their livelihood,” she adds. “But the way the landscape is set up, adult content creators, sex workers and educators get the short end of the stick on both sides of the spectrum.” She says she fears that kicking out all adult content will clean up legally created content with non-consensual material and will push people towards AI models without any filters.
On August 1, the European Commission presented what it called the world’s first comprehensive AI legislation. The goal, he said, is to cultivate responsible use of AI across the bloc. It followed previous EU legislation controlling illegal and harmful activities on digital platforms. But the initiative’s organizers say regulators don’t understand the adult industry, risking censorship, draconian measures and misunderstandings.
“We can offer the right insight to policymakers so they can regulate in a way that protects fundamental rights, freedom and promotes a more gender-positive online environment,” says Ornelas.
