Wikipedia describes OnlyFans as “an internet content subscription service…popular with sex workers who produce pornography”. Though the article goes on to state that OnlyFans “also has a market with other content creators—including chefs, fitness trainers, and musicians”, a lot of the time, it’s a place where cute girls take their clothes off for paying customers. Whatever, consenting adults, etcetera.

Apparently, many content creators also message privately with their highest-paying fans as a way to keep them engaged. Of course, it doesn’t scale. As a result, a cottage industry of human “chatters” developed, to secretly handle replies on behalf of models. Thus, sad goobers who pay money to talk to their internet crush are, in reality, chatting with a low-wage worker churning through replies in a digital sweatshop. That’s pretty terrible! Still, at least it gave a person a job.

The latest development is even worse, and it involves AI, because of course it does. Recently, models have ditched their human chatters and replaced them with AI impersonators replying to DMs on their behalf. It’s getting to be where a poor, lonely dork on the internet can’t even pay to have a real parasocial relationship with a human being anymore.