OnlyFans Models Are Using AI Impersonators to Keep Up With Their DMs

One of the more persistent concerns in the age of AI is that the robots will take our jobs. The extent to which this fear is founded remains to be seen, but we’re already witnessing some level of replacement in certain fields. Even niche occupations are in jeopardy. For example, the world of OnlyFans chatters is already getting disrupted.

What are OnlyFans chatters, you say? Earlier this year, WIRED published a fascinating investigation into the world of gig workers who get paid to impersonate top-earning OnlyFans creators in online chats with their fans. Within the industry, they’re called “chatters.”

A big part of the appeal of OnlyFans—or so I’m told—is that its creators appear to directly engage with their fans, exchanging messages and sometimes talking for hours. Relationship simulation is as crucial an ingredient to its success, basically, as titillation.

Of course, a single creator with thousands of ongoing DM conversations has only so many hours in a day. To manage the deluge of amorous messages, it’s become commonplace to outsource the conversations to “chatters” paid to sub in for the actual talent.

These chatters used to mainly be contractors from the Philippines, Pakistan, India, and other countries with substantially lower wage expectations than the US. But, increasingly, human chatters are getting replaced by AI-generated stand-ins.

A number of different startups now sell access to these AI chatters and other generative AI tools—and they say business is booming.

“A lot of creators were like, hey, there’s a need,” says Kunal Anand, the founder of a startup offering an AI OnlyFans chatting service called ChatPersona. “We built our own model with data we got from a lot of creators’ chats.”

Since launching last year, ChatPersona has around 6,000 customers according to Anand, a mix of individuals and agencies.

Anand says that ChatPersona doesn’t technically violate OnlyFans’ terms of service because it requires a human in the loop to press “send” on the messages its AI chatters generate. (It has previously been reported that OnlyFans banned the use of AI chatbots although its current terms of service do not mention AI chatters.)

OnlyFans did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The field is already fairly crowded. Some of the better-known tools have on-the-nose names like FlirtFlow, ChatterCharms, and Botly. Another competitor, the relatively generically-named Supercreator, has a suite of AI tools, from AI-generated scripts to an assistant called “Inbox Copilot” that algorithmically sorts simps, moving “spenders” to the top of the list and ignoring “freeloaders.”

Eden, a former OnlyFans creator who now runs a boutique agency called Heiss Talent (and who would only speak on the record using her first name, citing privacy concerns) is an enthusiastic adopter of this tech. She represents five creators, and says they all use Supercreator’s AI tools. “It’s an insane increase in sales, because you can target people based on their spending,” she says.

One of the features scans for fans who haven’t been active in a while, and then automatically sends a message when they log on for the first time. Eden says that the creators take over from there, but having a robot get the ball rolling is remarkably efficient, resulting in at least one $1,000 tip from a conversation initiated by AI.

Although there are some AI chatter tools that are fully automated, Eden likes the creators she represents to mix in their own words. “We come up with the core of the message and the AI helps us fill it out,” she says. “We like to keep things as authentic as possible.” Sure!

I can’t say I have personal experience with the chatbots on OnlyFans, but I’ve certainly encountered them online while shopping or looking for information from, say, my insurance company. But usually it’s pretty clear that those are AI generated conversations. How do you feel about companies using chatbots without telling you it’s an AI tool? Should we just accept this is the way things are going? Let me know what you think via email at hello@wired.com, or by adding a comment at the bottom of this article.