AI Pornography Is Idolatry and a Lie
Defend the Human Person Amid a Technocracy
On the surface, it may seem like just another technological innovation—“ethical” pornography generated by artificial intelligence. No actors, no sets, no so-called “exploitation.” Just algorithms. Code. Data. And simulated images that mimic human sexuality.
But do not be deceived. This is not a step forward in ethics. It is the latest regression in a cultural descent into the abyss of sacrilege and false worship.
We are not dealing merely with machines. We are dealing with the dehumanization of the human person and the mechanization of sin. This is a new liturgy of lust—digital, detached, and devastating—and it demands a Catholic response rooted in truth, natural law, and the theology of the body.
The Idolatry of “Ethical Porn”
The recent report from Mashable touting the rise of AI-generated pornography under the guise of “ethical” production represents a bold and insidious lie. Its premise is seductive: if no real human is involved in the explicit imagery, then it does not exploit anyone. But here is the fatal flaw: the image and likeness of the human person is not a tool to be digitally manipulated for base appetites. Even when rendered artificially, pornography degrades the soul and corrupts the faculty of reason and desire.
As Jason Thacker, Chair of Research at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, rightly warned:
“Deep fake pornography is inherently unethical because it involves stealing someone’s likeness and digitally manipulating them to perform sexual acts they never consented to. It is a digital form of sexual assault.”¹
He is correct—but it goes deeper. This is not only a violation of consent or privacy. This is a perversion of the very anthropology that undergirds civilization. Artificial intelligence does not sanitize lust. It mechanizes it. It offers a sacrament of desecration, masking degradation as innovation.
Pornography and the Sacrilege of the Body
St. John Paul II, in Theology of the Body, made a revolutionary and profound claim:
“The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine.”²
What does this mean? It means the human body is a visible sign of the invisible reality of the soul and of God Himself. To desecrate the body, even in digital form, is to desecrate the sacred. It is not merely a moral failing. It is liturgical rebellion.
Pornography, even when animated by AI, is a blasphemy against the incarnational mystery. In the classical world, this would have been named rightly: idolatry. And just like ancient idols—Moloch, Baal, and Ashtoreth—this false god demands sacrifice: the degradation of women, the enslavement of men’s minds, the annihilation of children’s innocence, and now the desecration of digital likenesses that bear some trace of human dignity.
As Peter Kreeft has written:
“Pornography does to the soul what drugs do to the body—it enslaves, it twists, it blinds.”³
Indeed, we are watching the numbing of the modern soul through a pharmakon of pixels. And now AI is the dealer.
The New Technocratic Gnosticism
At the heart of this AI pornography trend is a neo-gnostic impulse: the rejection of the body as a sacred reality and the substitution of virtual fantasy for the embodied truth. This is not merely about sex. This is a worldview—a denial of creation itself. It is, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, a product of modernity’s estrangement from both charity and truth:
“Without the guidance of charity and truth, technology becomes a force that causes unprecedented damage and creates new divisions in the human family.”⁴
In this vision, man is no longer a moral creature, a rational soul incarnate. He is a consumer of stimulation and a creator of artificial pleasure. The conjugal act is no longer the sacred mutual self-gift that begets life and love. It is now an individualized, isolated, mechanized gratification stripped of covenant, communion, or consequence.
C.S. Lewis warned of such a future in The Abolition of Man, where men without chests—stripped of virtue and wonder—would be manipulated by technocrats and enslaved by their appetites.⁵
The Exploitation Behind the Lie
Those who champion AI porn claim to be solving the exploitation problem in the traditional adult industry. But here’s the hard truth: they don’t care about the exploitation. They care about the bottom line.
AI allows producers to bypass actors, minimize overhead, and flood the market with endless “content” with zero moral accountability. The performers—already victims in many respects—are now expendable. And yet the lust of the consumer is never satisfied. It only grows more twisted, more detached, more desperate.
Meanwhile, as this technology evolves, real people are increasingly being victimized. The case of Lucy Adam Stevenson—whose Instagram images were turned into deepfake child pornography without her knowledge—is not rare. It is becoming horrifyingly common. And because laws haven’t caught up with the technology, predators go unpunished.
We are not witnessing innovation. We are witnessing a revolution in degradation. And as with all revolutions, there will be blood—not on the streets, but in the homes, minds, and hearts of those who fall prey to it.
Societal Consequences: The Collapse of Sexual Morality
We should not be surprised that our society is collapsing sexually. When pornography is freely available, normalized, and now artificially generated, it distorts the entire understanding of sexuality, love, and personhood.
We no longer know how to temper our passions. We no longer know how to wait, to pursue virtue, to train the heart in chastity. And as John Paul II warned, when sexuality is severed from love, responsibility, and God, it becomes a destructive force:
“Only the chaste man and the chaste woman are capable of true love.”⁶
Unchastity breeds dysfunction: in relationships, in families, in children, in societies. And now, with AI, that dysfunction is being codified, scaled, and monetized.
The Theology of the Body and the Call to Holiness
John Paul II’s Theology of the Body was not merely an academic exploration of sexuality. It was a prophetic antidote to the very crisis we face now. He taught that:
“Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless… if he does not experience love.”⁷
Pornography—and its AI iterations—offer the illusion of love, the mimicry of intimacy, and the lie of connection. But they leave the soul more empty, more fragmented, more enslaved.
It is only through a rediscovery of the sacredness of the body, the covenant of marriage, and the reality of divine love that we can recover.
The Catholic Response: Clarity, Courage, and Combat
This is not the time for silence or compromise. Catholics must speak clearly and act courageously.
We must expose the lies of AI porn. We must reject the false distinction between “ethical” and “unethical” forms of exploitation. We must teach our children, our students, our parishioners, that the sexual act is a sacred gift—not a commodity.
We must form men in virtue. We must teach women their dignity. We must create communities where chastity is celebrated, where brokenness is healed, where families are strengthened, and where the truth is preached with boldness.
Pope Paul VI, in Humanae Vitae, prophetically warned of a culture that separates sex from love, marriage, and life. He foresaw the rise of coercion, the objectification of women, and the collapse of moral order.⁸ We are now living in the wake of that collapse.
The Restoration of the Image
The only way forward is through the restoration of the imago Dei—the truth that every human person, male and female, is made in the image and likeness of God. Not as an idea. Not as a likeness to be copied or rendered. But as a living icon of divine love.
The Catechism is clear:
“The human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God’: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become… the temple of the Spirit.”⁹
AI pornography, whether deepfake or data-generated, violates this dignity. It turns the temple into a tomb. It turns the icon into an idol.
We cannot allow it to become normalized.
The Battle Before Us
The sexual revolution has not ended. It has evolved. And now, with the rise of AI pornography, the stakes are higher than ever. We are not simply debating technology. We are fighting for the soul of civilization.
If we do not resist this idolatry, we will witness the further breakdown of families, the annihilation of chastity, and the collapse of any meaningful distinction between man and machine, love and lust, truth and illusion.
As Catholics, we must reclaim the sacredness of sexuality. We must catechize our children. We must challenge lawmakers. We must form artists, ethicists, philosophers, and technologists in the moral law. And we must remind the world that human dignity cannot be downloaded, simulated, or commodified.
“One man. One woman. Permanent. Lifelong. Indissoluble. Honoring the sexual act as a sacred gift that begets life in God.” This is the truth. This is our mission.
Let us rise and fight the lie.
Footnotes
Jason Thacker, “Deepfake Pornography and the Harms of AI-Generated Sexual Content,” WeeklyTech, February 13, 2023, https://jasonthacker.com/2023/02/13/deepfake-pornography-and-the-harms-of-ai-generated-sexual-content/.
John Paul II, Theology of the Body, General Audience, February 20, 1980.
Peter Kreeft, Three Approaches to Abortion (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991), 74.
Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2009), §26.
C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (New York: HarperOne, 2001), 24–25.
John Paul II, Love and Responsibility (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993), 198.
John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis (1979), §10.
Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (1968), §17.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), §364.