When OnlyFans exploded in popularity during the pandemic, the highly lucrative gig was typically the remit of conventionally attractive models with a penchant for self-promotion. Now a growing wave of faceless, tech-savvy creators are trying to prove they can do that job just as well with AI.
AI influencers are artificial models created on image-generating websites, which have come a long way in their sophistication in recent years.
They are controlled by creators who generate images, marketing them on social media platforms and providing exclusive content to paying subscribers who they also converse with.
It seems difficult to believe that enough people would be willing to part with their money for the privilege of interacting with a person who doesn’t actually exist.
But Will Monange, the 25-year-old boss of OnlyFans rival Fanvue, is betting on an AI-generated future of adult content, thinks the behavior he has observed from customers.
Fanvue
One-sided relationship
About a year and a half ago, Monange and his small team started to see a big jump in AI’s image-generating capabilities. It prompted them to reach out to the people behind those creations to tempt them over to Fanvue.
“If someone’s able to have a persona that they can leverage to get involved in the kind of creator economy without having to be the person in front of the camera, we took a bet on the fact that that would likely open up to a lot of people who currently aren’t involved,” Monange told Fortune.
It’s hard to know just how successful that bet has been so far, but AI models on the platform appear to be making early progress.
Last November, the amount of money generated on Fanvue from AI models doubled from the month before. AI creators accounted for 15% of Fanvue’s total revenues that month.
One of the biggest drivers of that increase was Emily Pellegrini, a 23-year-old influencer who posts adult content to her subscribers using deepfake technology.
Fanvue says Pellegrini, one of the most popular AI models on its site, generated $23,000 in revenue in January, up from $6,000 in October.
But the faces behind these profiles are typically secretive.
AI model Hailey Lopez’s creator is an anonymous university student who made his model using the AI image generation website Stable Diffusion after lots of experimentation.
They will spend a few hours a day creating content and chatting…
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