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Confessions of a Recovering AI Porn Addict
A “gooner” tells WIRED he became hooked on the cartoonish nature of AI porn. Several addictions experts say the genre could pose a problem for people prone to compulsive sexual behavior.
The 26-year-old, who asked to be identified by his first name citing privacy concerns, says that at the peak of his addiction he would force himself to masturbate “either out of habit, obligation or desire.” The Instagram Reel led him down a rabbit hole of dreamlike pleasure as he searched for AI porn that depicted “women with cartoonish boobs, aeriolas and nipples twice the size of the rest of her torso, [and] super wide hips.” Porn sites are some of the most-visited online, according to a 2023 study, and as AI has gone mainstream, so have concerns around the risks that this growing genre of adult entertainment presents for people who suffer from compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), the official term recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. As people become more accustomed to getting what they want from realistic AI renderings of porn, in addition to the buffet of erotic media that already exists across the internet, human connection, for some, may no longer be enough, says Monifa Ellis-Addie, a therapist at Banyan Therapy Group in Los Angeles, a faith-based counseling practice.
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