Mattel’s XXX mix-up, Musk’s birthing ambitions, and 4B mania
Welcome to Cyborg Media Entertainment News. Let the incel-ebration begin!
This is the first installment of C-MEN, a post-human link dump for people who care about the future.
If last week’s election results taught us anything, it’s that misogyny is alive and well in the U.S.A. Young white men hit the polls in record numbers in a symbolic rebuke of equity and progress. The takeaway: Toxic masculinity is having a moment and it smells like frat bro.
This week I’m following the thread through a series of stories that touch on America’s gender divide and how it intersects with the future of human-machine relationships.
Lions, tigers, and hardcore anal?
Could AI be responsible for exposing children to porn in the toy aisle? Mattel pulled its promotional “Wicked Fashion Dolls" from store shelves earlier this week, after fans spotted a packaging misprint directing consumers to popular XXX site, www.Wicked.com. Coincidentally (or not), Mattel’s chief design officer, Chris Down, told Fast Company earlier this year that the company would employ generative AI to help streamline package design. Which raises the question: If artificial intelligence did it, who’s to blame?
Source: NPR, h/t @diet_prada
Could a billionaire’s sperm be the key to saving humanity? Elon Musk seems to think so. He’s reportedly offered to impregnate friends, colleagues, passing acquaintances, a presidential nominee, and one of the biggest names in pop music. Musk has waxed ad nauseam about existential threats to humanity, like climate change and superhuman AI (both of which he is likely to benefit from financially). This piece from The New York Times focuses on another obsession: declining birth rates, and how the world’s richest man sees baby-making as a civic duty (at least for some).
Source: NYT
Last week, young white men turned out in record numbers to re-elect former president Donald Trump, a self-professed pussy grabber. Now, they’ve taken to the internet to proclaim their victory with a battle cry that befits his record: “Your body, my choice.” Young women, in response, have flooded TikTok, and other social media channels, with support for an obscure Korean feminist movement. 4B, as it’s called for short, encourages women to abstain from dating, sex, marriage, and childbirth with heterosexual men.
Last March, The Cut published a story that reveals the campaign’s history, goals, and problematic relationship with trans women. It’s a must-read for anyone considering swearing off dick for the foreseeable future.
Source: Wired, The Cut
Seven years ago, I visited the birthplace of the world’s first sex robot, Harmony. Matt McMullen, the founder of Abyss Creations, was banking big on robotic RealDolls but he believed they would always be a niche product. Is it possible he was wrong?
Source: Me
Character.ai’s Shocking Engagement
People may not be exiting the corporal dating pool en masse just yet, but an Andreesen Horowitz study released early this year shows human-machine relationships are already a booming business. Character.ai, the roleplaying companion app that one mother recently blamed for her son’s suicide, is now the third most popular generative AI tool on the web. What’s more, it far out-performs ChatGPT and other popular applications in terms of engagement. Users visit Character.ai an average of 300 times a month.
Source: Andreesen Horowitz
A History of Post-Human Weddings
As the world’s heterosexuals grapple with the possibility of living without the opposite sex, some are opting out of human relationships altogether. Last week, performance artist Alicia Framis reportedly married her holographic AI lover, Ailex Sibouwlingen. Dazed commemorated the moment with a history of post-human nuptials.
Source: Dazed
Teenagers are very rarely interesting. Jacky Dejo is an extreme exception. The Dutch influencer got her start as a bikini model at the age of 13, becoming wildly popular with an online audience of predominantly adult men. She’s been extorted, harassed, and bullied, but, at least in her mind, she’s had the upper hand all along. For the majority of her teens, she’s built a small empire feeding the internet scantily clad photos and recruiting other young women to do the same. She’s also become something of a vigilante pedophile-hunter.
Source: NYT