There's no way to know if AI porn wouldn't just serve as a gateway drug to the real thing. I don't think it would change the calculation in terms of behavior of users, just make legally safer for the producers.
On the contrary, there is a way to estimate whether AI porn will serve as gateway drug. We have an entire country as a test case. As far back as the 1970s, Japan was awash in porn. Every kind: photographic, comic book style, videos. It was and probably still is more common in Japan than the U.S. At least, I got that impression living there in the 1970s. Video porn became very common soon after the VCR was introduced. Comic books and videos began portraying more violent sex crimes in the 1980s and 90s. People predicted that actual sex crimes would increase. On the contrary, they decreased. This is well documented. As far as I know, the numbers have not been challenged. It would appear that many people who would commit sex crimes sublimate the urge by watching porn. Not all, of course.
I'm not sure I consider Japanese culture an accurate baseline data set for the US. This is a much more violent country with a culture that represses sexual expression. It would be great if the US data followed Japan's, but call me skeptical.
Japan was violent toward other countries until 1945. Internally, there was a lot of violence from 1500 to 1868. However, since 1868 it has been peaceful and orderly within Japan. The crime rate is far lower than the U.S. The homicide rate is 26 times lower per capita, 0.25 compared to the U.S. rate of 6.52. Rape and other violent crimes are much lower. The homicide rate is low partly because they have strong gun control laws. However, guns are available. Many people have them in the countryside.
They definitely do not repress sexual expression. I have read and seen Japanese pornography from the Edo period (1800) up to the present day. I know many Japanese people since I went to college there. I can report they are very open about sex. Somewhat less than they were in 1868 or 1975, but still very open. Christianity is rare in Japan, and their native religions do not prohibit sex as much as Christianity does. On the contrary, there are festivals celebrating sex, with giant phalluses paraded through the streets. Even up to the 20th century peasant customs such as teenagers sneaking into houses for sex (yobai) were widely reported. Even up to the 1970s Japan had a risqu├й reputation in the West, which I think was . . . not undeserved.
Some people in every culture have inhibitions and mixed feelings about sex.
I agree whole heartedly with your comment. I would like to clarify one remark in my own comment. By violent, in terms of the US, I also meant sexual violence/abuse. We have real problems with generational and systemic sexual violence and abuse. There's a big part of me that hopes opening porn to more men reduces that violence, but I haven't clinically seen that is true.
A fascinating, if problematic, topic to contemplate. It seems to me that our legal (and ethical) systems in this area have largely relied on damage to exploited participants. If no such people exist, then what?
We'll have to consider more strongly the "nanny state" angle on this. How bad does exposing the populace to some image/concept have to be before the nanny state can/should/would step in? Liberty absolutists will say never. No matter how awful or how well-documented the effects, the gov't should never limit "speech". What say the rest of us?
Imagine just how bad this could get. Russian IRC groups specifically designing (and A/B testing!) horrific AI content purposefully intended to increase crime and violence. Some will say it's already happening. But consider the scale in the future. Is there a point at which such "speech" is equivalent to shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater?
There's no way to know if AI porn wouldn't just serve as a gateway drug to the real thing. I don't think it would change the calculation in terms of behavior of users, just make legally safer for the producers.
On the contrary, there is a way to estimate whether AI porn will serve as gateway drug. We have an entire country as a test case. As far back as the 1970s, Japan was awash in porn. Every kind: photographic, comic book style, videos. It was and probably still is more common in Japan than the U.S. At least, I got that impression living there in the 1970s. Video porn became very common soon after the VCR was introduced. Comic books and videos began portraying more violent sex crimes in the 1980s and 90s. People predicted that actual sex crimes would increase. On the contrary, they decreased. This is well documented. As far as I know, the numbers have not been challenged. It would appear that many people who would commit sex crimes sublimate the urge by watching porn. Not all, of course.
I'm not sure I consider Japanese culture an accurate baseline data set for the US. This is a much more violent country with a culture that represses sexual expression. It would be great if the US data followed Japan's, but call me skeptical.
Japan was violent toward other countries until 1945. Internally, there was a lot of violence from 1500 to 1868. However, since 1868 it has been peaceful and orderly within Japan. The crime rate is far lower than the U.S. The homicide rate is 26 times lower per capita, 0.25 compared to the U.S. rate of 6.52. Rape and other violent crimes are much lower. The homicide rate is low partly because they have strong gun control laws. However, guns are available. Many people have them in the countryside.
They definitely do not repress sexual expression. I have read and seen Japanese pornography from the Edo period (1800) up to the present day. I know many Japanese people since I went to college there. I can report they are very open about sex. Somewhat less than they were in 1868 or 1975, but still very open. Christianity is rare in Japan, and their native religions do not prohibit sex as much as Christianity does. On the contrary, there are festivals celebrating sex, with giant phalluses paraded through the streets. Even up to the 20th century peasant customs such as teenagers sneaking into houses for sex (yobai) were widely reported. Even up to the 1970s Japan had a risqu├й reputation in the West, which I think was . . . not undeserved.
Some people in every culture have inhibitions and mixed feelings about sex.
I agree whole heartedly with your comment. I would like to clarify one remark in my own comment. By violent, in terms of the US, I also meant sexual violence/abuse. We have real problems with generational and systemic sexual violence and abuse. There's a big part of me that hopes opening porn to more men reduces that violence, but I haven't clinically seen that is true.
A fascinating, if problematic, topic to contemplate. It seems to me that our legal (and ethical) systems in this area have largely relied on damage to exploited participants. If no such people exist, then what?
We'll have to consider more strongly the "nanny state" angle on this. How bad does exposing the populace to some image/concept have to be before the nanny state can/should/would step in? Liberty absolutists will say never. No matter how awful or how well-documented the effects, the gov't should never limit "speech". What say the rest of us?
Imagine just how bad this could get. Russian IRC groups specifically designing (and A/B testing!) horrific AI content purposefully intended to increase crime and violence. Some will say it's already happening. But consider the scale in the future. Is there a point at which such "speech" is equivalent to shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater?