It's become normal now to see social media avatars and advertising images created with AI technology. But when does this become a problem? And when is it criminal?
At present, most of the images look a bit cheap and exaggerated, and are often easy to spot.
But they are still alluring, it seems, since a 33-year-old man in Osaka called Kaiga Yokota has been arrested for creating an overly realistic female character.
The issue is that he posed as this character, Miru Nanase, attracting followers on social media (to the tune of 90,000 on Twitter/X). So far so harmless, but Yokota's real intent ...
Earlier in the month, we reported on a new services offered by a real estate company that puts couples together on blind dates to view properties.
If that sounds a bit outlandish, wait till you hear what local governments think the solution is to boosting the marriage and birth rate in Japan.
You've guessed it: artificial intelligence.
The buzzword of the decade is not only going to change everything from graphic design to how movies are made (and no doubt, how porn is produced), but also how we find prospective partners.
Matchmaking events and services are now using AI to filter ...
Tama Toys has already shown us what AI can do to design masturbator toys with the bestselling Artificial Intelligence Vagina onahole series.
Now comes the inevitable next step: AI porn.
An AI-generated adult video produced by h.m.p. stars a digitally created performer called Ai Kihana (木花あい).
The 35-minute video (41AIBV0001) claims to be the world's first such AI porn release. It comes out December 22 on DVD and Blu-ray.
We will have to withhold judgment until we view the actual footage, but the Ai Kihana's face is attractive, yet does have that uncanny valley kind of ...
Do androids dream of electric sheep? Do otaku date non-2D women?
These are the eternal questions of our times. In the case of the latter, it seems that are some otaku who are keen to branch out into three dimensions.
So much so that, well, there's an app for that.
Otakoi (Otaku Love) is a dating app for otaku. The promo images are just awesome. If you've seen these ads popping in your feed, you know you're in trouble!
Needless to say, these images are AI-generated. The presence of fake photos of couples might be a warning sign for a dating app, but since the target demographic is ...
Last month, we wrote about the controversy that threatened to wreck one of the conventions of the Japanese summer: swimwear gravure photo events where fans go to see and take pictures of models and idols.
These are often held in public lidos (outdoor pools), and are popular events that attract large numbers of fans.
After local Japanese Communist Party politicians complained about the commercial use of prefectural parks and the "lewd" nature of the poses, though, authorities stepped in to ask organizers to call off some events in June.
This was then criticized as censorship and ...
Last month, we reported on the controversy over a new gravure idol who was supposedly AI-generated but seemed to be just a slightly different version of a flesh-and-blood gradol. The publisher eventually withdrew its much-hyped photo book featuring Ai Satsuki.
As we noted in a follow-up post, artificial intelligence has major implications for gravure, making it possible to churn out cheap photo books with almost now overheads (no expensive photo shoots, no model fees, etc.). It has meant the market is currently flooded with cheap or even free photo books.
The issue of AI and gravure has ...
It sparked both hype and controversy, and then just as quickly vanished.
When publisher Shueisha released a digital photo book featuring a fully AI-generated gravure model on May 29, it felt like the tipping point of something.
But then netizens were quick to point out that the "model" Ai Satsuki was uncannily similar to a real-life gravure idol, Hikari Kabashima (previously known as Yui Asakura), suggesting the AI was simply recycling images of Kabashima/Asakura from the Weekly Playboy shoot she did (Shueisha publishes the magazine).
Shueisha responded to the controversy by withdrawing ...
Back in 2011, AKB48 briefly seemed to be on the cusp of some sort of technological tipping point when it played with a fully digital member of the group. Sadly, or not, Aimi Eguchi was created just for an ad campaign and this "digital idol" trend didn't continue.
Instead, we got dribs and drabs of sensational digitally created idols like Saya, the ultra-realistic schoolgirl who wasn't real, and were teased with an all-digital supergroup.
The VR boom in the 2010s also seemed to be a major new chapter in the relationship between sex and technology (not least, its implications for watching ...
At regular intervals, it is common to see media articles breathlessly discuss the future of sex and sexuality in terms of robotic vaginas and dolls, especially combined with augmented reality tech. That hasn't really come to pass, mainly (we suspect) because of the cost of making and owning such toys. Likewise, the hype about virtual reality's implications for porn and sex toys has plateaued; though the tech is still around, it hasn't quite ushered in the immediate revolution we were led to believe it would.
But the Artificial Intelligence Vagina No. 01 Onahole is advertised as an industry ...
It seems that everyone is using AI these days to make art, photos, and even essays. The results are often very impressive. Perhaps even worrying.
But here's some AI that's really worth getting excited about. Kanyon Industries, which seems to be based in Hong Kong, posts examples of AI art featuring sexy cosplayers -- all digitally rendered, of course.
Heavily influenced by Japanese sources, it was inevitable that the results would strike big among Japanese netizens (as in, almost 31 million views and counting for this one tweet).
People say that AI still struggles with hands but ...
