OnlyFans Twins: How Users are Using AI to be Always Available

Words: Daisy Finch

Adverts for OnlyFans have become so common that you’ve likely scrolled past posts promising “Hot singles in your area” during your morning commute. But look closer and some of these models start appearing a bit too perfect. Lounging against neon-lit walls, or emerging dripping from the ocean, skin is glaringly clear, hair tightly coiffed – these singles aren’t just in your area: they’re right in your pocket. 

Top OnlyFans creators, including ex-Baywatch star Carmen Electra, are licensing their image to AI-powered sites to cater to their followers’ every fantasy, available on request 24/7. OhChat, founded in 2022, produces AI versions of real-world OnlyFans creators and influencers catering to a faster, user-directed experience. The site now has over 250,000 users, with OhChat claiming 20 per cent of the proceeds.

Erika Amore, a top one per cent creator with just under 8,000 subscribers on OnlyFans and over 90,000 followers on X, explains that the process of creating these “twins” is largely informed by the creator themselves. “You send them different levels of images: some ‘safe for work’, some topless photos, and then some explicit pictures. You also do voice training – sometimes you record answers, sometimes it’s just filling out a questionnaire.” Then, it’s a matter of providing background on their personality, age, conversational and visual limits, all to ensure the “digital twin” doesn’t give away more than the creator is comfortable with.

According to OhChat’s CEO Nic Young, their system is trained on publicly available images via an open source model, before creator-provided photos are fed through to create a “twin” that fans can interact with. Speaking to me over Zoom, Young explained: “We need around 30 images of a creator,” Young explained. “At that point of processing and generating, AI basically says, ‘any human within this image looks like this’ and then shows examples of what the creator has sent us. That’s how you get the likeness of the creator onto the piece of content you’re generating.”

Popular ‘Build a Girlfriend' apps enable users to craft their ideal partner from scratch; Replika, one of the most well-known iterations, was founded in 2016 and now has a fanbase of 80,000 users on Reddit. Hoping to take back control, some creators are combining the real-world appeal of OnlyFans with generative AI. While these “digital twins” provide creators with some extent of agency over their image, and a way to continue monetising their brand, the question remains whether this is truly the answer to a tumultuous time for creators – or just another avenue for exploitation. 

The growth of sex tech over such a short period of time means concerns around the potential for exploitation are rife. The Independent recently reported on Europe’s first cyber brothel in Berlin, which Laura Bates, author of The New Age of Sexism visited last year. Bates claims they supplied her with an inanimate ‘woman’ whose clothes had been torn at her request – and one of her labia ripped off, Bates suspects, by a previous guest. The cyber brothel denies the latter claim.

For now, this means OhChat’s safeguards are stricter than they likely will be in the future, until Young says he can be “100 per cent certain” where the line is drawn. So, conversations including minors or issues of consent are heavily policed. “There’s nothing to do with spanking,” Young explains, “which isn’t illegal, it’s just somewhere in a spectrum – we don’t allow that because we’d rather stay away from anything to do with physical violence.”

For now, there’s strict barriers in place around the content users can prompt but there’s still plenty of room for exploration and it’s the platform’s emphasis on fantasy and experimentation that appealed to many creators when they first signed up. 

Amore tells me this was a big part of her journey into AI. “At first, it was about generating a realistic image,” she says. “Then, I was trying to figure out whether I could make a younger or older version of myself.” She added that it also appealed as a way to further her existing brand: “My niche is big boobs so could I make a version of myself with even bigger boobs?”

“Even if it’s synthetic, at least it’s immediate – I think in this day and age, people want what they want now.”

In other cases, creators’ are using AI to address their concerns over the future. Elaina St James, who earns over $10,000 a month on OnlyFans, sees AI as a way to continue earning when she feels unable to continue making content herself. “I’m now 58; it’s harder to be in front of the camera, to feel comfortable, and I want to retire someday. I see AI as a way to take this brand that I’ve built, my ‘older model with a smile’, and see if it could continue forever.” 

Like Amore, there’s the added appeal of offering fans content she otherwise couldn’t: “There are certain things I’m not going to do physically; I’m never going to do a gang bang. I’m not going to put my body at risk [but] if somebody wants to have a fantasy that I’m skydiving naked or having sex on a balcony with a busy street below, that’s fine.” Some real-world boundaries still apply – but St James is happy to offload the more daring physical content to her chatbot. 

While OhChat isn’t close to replacing OnlyFans, Julian Shaw, who has over 45,000 likes on his OnlyFans profile, believes it caters to a specific demand for immediacy creators can struggle to keep up with.  “Even if it’s synthetic, at least it’s immediate – I think in this day and age, people want what they want now.” Shaw’s taking smaller steps into the world of AI-generated content, limiting his “twin” to shirtless content, similar to the photos already available on his social media. He hopes his OhChat twin will similarly whet users’ appetites for his OnlyFans content. 

“It’s like having a sip of wine before you buy the bottle,” he says. “It’s not the real thing but if you like the vibe, you might think, ‘Okay I need a custom clip from this person’.” So far, Shaw says he’s earned several hundred from his OhChat “twin”.

Currently, human creators remain at the heart of OhChat’s business model. Young explains that it’s hard to replicate decades of brand appeal – though he doesn’t write off the appeal of synthetic models long term. “I think as the technology behind it gets better you can get to a place of building up those histories. But that’s a five, ten year horizon. In the short-term, AI versions of human creators are by far the most interesting and effective place.” 

Like any other industry, those who depend on self-driven income are assessing how AI will affect their lives. While “digital twins” promise access to creators who’ve spent years building brands that appeal to a dedicated fanbase, there’s still much uncertainty around whether this will be enough to protect their ability to earn from their image as AI continues to evolve. For now, it seems that creators themselves are at the heart of bridging the gap between well-established brands like OnlyFans and the new age of sex tech. When I ask St James about the future, she laughs. “I have to play out all these things when I’m in this weird business.”