Slower burn

I can agree in part with this remark, though the notable decline in popularity appears inevitable even for Iron (Wo)man.

Long before the serendipitous discovery by OpenAI et al. that kickstarted the ongoing chatbot revolution, classic porn formats began to lose ground under the assault of amateurs. I can’t reckon it a transformation for the better, it just happened all the same, much like vertical smartphone video (arrgh). And yet, tailored pornography keeps some sustainable cut of the market, akin to vinyl or hi-end audio. ;)

That said, I’m not at all inclined to shame pornography, both traditional and AI-made, for its cleavage from “real life”. Said life needs platonic forms of beauty that one might aspire to, lest one loses steam and becomes increasingly narrow-minded (just like Gamergatekeepers). Citing Heinrich von Kleist,

… die Grazie wieder ein; so, daß sie, zu gleicher Zeit, in demjenigen menschlichen Körperbau am Reinsten erscheint, der entweder gar keins, oder ein unendliches Bewußtsein hat, d. h. in dem Gliedermann, oder in dem Gott.

See also Slow, Slow Burn by George Alec Effinger, a seminal investigation of AI porn e(sthe)thical connection problem in cyberpunk.