ChatGPT is coming for your husband. Is it coming for your job, too?
The internet changed the way we work, in a technological version of the industrial revolution. As internet use became widespread many twentieth century jobs were permanently changed, or completely eliminated. Now Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly developing and everyone from writers to therapists are worried about their job security. Should sex workers be worried?
Let’s break it down, factor by factor, to find out.
Cost
AI would likely be able to quickly outcompete human workers on cost. If an AI-enabled life-sized sex doll hit the market, it’d probably be pretty expensive to start. Dumb sex dolls retail for $1,000-$6,000 currently and even if a smart doll cost multiples of that, cost per use would likely end up lower (assuming a relatively long lifespan for the doll) than an average escort’s rate. After all, escorts charge the same amount per visit each visit, with little exception, while a doll would likely be a single large upfront cost and perhaps an affordable monthly software subscription afterwards.
But we already know that cost isn’t the only driver for clients. Escorts exist across a large price range. Clients often have the option of companionship ranging from just a couple hundred dollars per hour up to upwards of $2,000 per hour - all in the same geographic area. The fact that high end escorts continue to do good business in a market flooded with low end workers proves that cost is not the most important factor for successful gentlemen. Something else matters more.
Experience
Current sex dolls may not offer physical experiences on par with those offered by humans. It is conceivable, however, that advancements in technology could produce materials that mimic the sensations of intercourse with a human woman.
It is conceivable that a robot could learn to moan, twist, clutch, kiss, stroke, and fondle like a human. A robot wouldn't require prophylactics, as a privately owned robot wouldn't be a possible vector for STI transmission and wouldn't be at risk of pregnancy. While human sex workers currently have the edge, sex workers’ jobs aren’t safe from robot replacement on sexual prowess alone.
But pure sexual experience doesn’t explain why clients choose the sex workers they do. There are completely vanilla sex workers charging thousands per hour who stay booked and busy, even while their clients have the option of going to significantly cheaper sex workers who offer a much wider menu of experiences.
This tells us what we already intuitively know - sex work isn’t just about sex. Sex work is psychological, emotional too. It’s about connection.
Connection
A sex doll’s client is an automatic regular, because it doesn’t make sense to spend thousands on a piece of multi-use equipment and only use it once. Even if you own multiple cars, you probably drive them all multiple times each.
Human sex workers’ rates tend to remain the same per visit, so there isn’t the same sunk cost logic for a client to become a regular. Yet most companions who do their work well have regulars as a significant part of their clientele. There are a number of reasons for this, but one of the biggest ones is the human desire for connection.
Clients come to us not just to satisfy a physical need, but also an emotional one. They want to feel heard by, and close to, another human. A well-developed AI can nod and synthesize appropriate reactions to connections, but a discerning client will always know that it’s not real. It’s just fancy programming and that’s it. He’s seeing and hearing the results of sophisticated algorithms, not human empathy. With sex workers our connections are compartmentalized and bounded, but they are no less real for it.
Especially for clients who seek GFE, the genuine connection is important. It’s what brings them back to see the same companion time and time again, even when there are hundreds of hotter, younger, and simply different women out there that he could experience. AI can’t truthfully replicate that.
The lower end of the market may have something to fear from AI, particularly those who focus on non-GFE quick visits. Even in that market, however, some clients will likely still prefer a real human partner over a fancy doll. In the middle and high end of the market, sex workers have little to fear from AI.
At the end of the day, a client’s dream girl is a girl - not a robot. AI sex dolls are coming for your fleshlight’s position in your life, they’re not coming for your companion’s position in your heart.
