AI Thirst Traps: A New Digital Deception
Derek Lam has amassed over 31,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 40,000 on X, captivating audiences with shirtless dances and flexing videos. His comments overflow with adoration—"beautiful," "hombre bello y sensual," and "this might be the finest man on the internet"—accompanied by red hearts and lip emojis. Yet Derek Lam is not real; he is entirely AI-generated. Despite clues like his silence, short video clips, and inconsistent selfies from three years ago, many followers never suspected his artificial nature.
The Rise of Fake Influencers
Derek is one of many AI-generated figures mimicking real models and porn stars to steal their likenesses for profit. These deepfakes—AI-generated media resembling real people—have improved dramatically since 2017. Initially low-quality and used to create non-consensual celebrity porn, today's deepfakes require minimal data. Siwei Lyu, a digital forensics professor at the University at Buffalo, explains: "Some of the most recent algorithms just need a single picture." This ease of creation allows convincing fake personas to catfish unsuspecting users.
Lyu analyzed Derek's videos frame by frame, spotting distortions like a watchface with swirls instead of numbers, a hand where all fingers were the same length, and fluctuating chest hair. He also identified a similar account, Vance Ford, with nearly identical videos. "Their movements are nearly identical—consistent with generation from a shared motion source," Lyu noted, citing facial warping and unintelligible text.
Real Followers, Fake Guilt
Followers like Patrick, 33, felt duped after learning Derek was AI. "This was probably some smut account I followed before I moved all that over to an alt," he said, adding that being fooled made him feel "old and vulnerable." Chris, also 33, unfollowed Derek immediately: "It's embarrassing and he's not my type... you can see there's like no life in his eyes." He fears such accounts could steal personal information or sell users' nudes.
Patrick noted that "a person being real, someone you could run into at a bar, is half the fun," and called the experience "Black mirror shit." The inability to distinguish real from fake reflects a culture of unattainable desire, where machines can replicate perfection.
Impact on Adult Entertainers
For creators like Cherie DeVille, an adult star with 4.5 million Instagram followers, AI imposters are a constant threat. Fraudsters create fake accounts using her image, report her real account, and scam fans for money or gift cards. "If someone's making an AI of me doing double anal, I should be making the money," DeVille said. Raissa Bellini, an OnlyFans creator, competes with AI personas that "can be flawless in every image, never age, never have bad lighting, never get tired." OnlyFans prohibits deceptive AI content but requires clear labeling, while smaller platforms lack such safeguards.
Legal and Ethical Gaps
Jason Schultz, a law professor at NYU, notes that existing copyright and right of publicity laws struggle with AI. Over 100 cases are pending about training AI on copyrighted material. "The technology will always accelerate faster than court decisions," Schultz warned. For non-celebrities, proving an AI persona is a copy is even harder. DeVille fears retirement if AI theft makes her work unviable: "If my income started tanking... there might be no choice but to retire."
The rise of AI thirst traps like Derek Lam signals a future where our faces, bodies, and desires can be synthesized without consent. As Lyu put it, "It's becoming more and more challenging to visually tell deepfakes apart."
