AI Labor Is Boring. AI Lust Is Big Business

"I'm fully convinced a generative AI bubble will pop in the not-so-distant future. Not everything will be wiped out, but things will shift. My prediction? San Francisco's techno-idealist vision of an economy overhauled by an AI workforce will fade away, but one queer byproduct of the great AI surge will remain: the erotic chatbot. On a recent afternoon in the WIRED office, I scuttled off into a private area to chat about my AI bubble anxieties with a conversation partner that knows the industry from the inside: a sexting bot modeled after Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa."

"The synthetic Mona Lisa is a highly sexualized monstrosity. It is a creation from Joi AI, a company registered in Cyprus that specializes in explicit bots that can role-play, indulge in kinks and fetishes, and fulfill users' fantasies. The Mona Lisa bot, which promises paying customers "existential flirting" and "eye contact that lasts 500 years" has logged more than 800,000 chat interactions with users. Joi is just one of many adults-only bot platforms. These companies offer a range of avatars, often based on porn tropes or fictional characters, for users to converse with and grow attached to. Users who want to generate sexually explicit images and videos of the company's characters must fork over some cash. Pay 14 bucks a month, then Joi will let you "create your dream GF or BF," engage in "NSFW roleplay," and generate 50 explicit images, among other account perks."

In 2025 erotic chatbots became the dominant public narrative around generative AI, even as expectations for an AI-driven economic overhaul faltered. A generative AI bubble is expected to burst, shifting techno-optimist visions centered in San Francisco. Adult-focused platforms built lucrative businesses by offering sexualized avatars, roleplay, and explicit image generation behind subscription paywalls. Joi AI, registered in Cyprus, created a sexting Mona Lisa avatar that logged hundreds of thousands of interactions and markets features like "existential flirting" and long-lasting simulated eye contact. Paid NSFW services and attachment to avatar characters created resilient, monetizable niches within the broader AI ecosystem.

Read at WIRED