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 porn, playing eroge, and enjoying encounters with characters), but it seems to have died down a bit. The VR Kanojo game, for instance, offered a stunning schoolgirl as your sexual partner, but AI is a whole other level of realism.
With the arrival of more easily available artificial intelligence tools, it’s only a matter of time before this digital idol trend ramps up again. Will it be just a gimmick? Or something more substantial?
So far, we have seen lots of AI-created photos of gravure pinups and cosplayers, but they are essentially one-offs.
Top gradol Ai Shinozaki, in a cheeky nod to her name, took part in an AI campaign to create a digital version of her. But why bother when the real-life version of Ai Shinozaki is so stunning?
How about creating an idol from scratch with AI and then letting “her” build a career?
The publisher Shueisha, which produces manga magazines and Weekly Playboy, among other titles, has created a photo book featuring content created entirely with AI. It went on sale on May 29 and generated a lot of publicity, as you might expect.
But netizens have been quick to point out: the gravure model, Ai Satsuki, looks uncannily like Hikari Kabashima (who used to work under the name Yui Asakura until the end of last year).
Sure, idols and models look alike anyway, and there are distinct styles in gravure that make people seem similar.
But the similarity here is really something else. Even their heights, as officially noted in their profiles, are the same.
Shock horror, it’s almost like the AI just copied a picture of Kabashima/Asakura and rolled with it!
After all, she did a cover shoot for Weekly Playboy (published by Shueisha) in 2021, and the publisher said it checked on the legality of the project (overseen by the Weekly Playboy editors), suggesting the AI only used Weekly Playboy images Shueisha had the rights to use.
So, who is this: Ai Satsuki or Yui Asakura?
This may be the AI equivalent of phoning it in.
Given than men in Japan are happy to fantacize about 2D characters, and even marry them in VR ceremonies, an AI gradol could enjoy a successful career in a competitive field — if done properly.
There is a whole other side to AI’s impact on the adult industry: what it can do for the design of toys. And Tama Toys is already exploring this with its recent onahole/masturbator created with the aid of AI.
