Sex worker human digital twins and intellectual property: on collaborative futures for sex thinkers, technologists, and lawyers

Sex worker artificial intelligence (AI) replicas are boutique Human Digital Twins (HDTs) whose unique selling point is their ability to simulate conversation with a real person whose personality is replicated through AI. Notably, they present a model for sex worker–AI collaboration that protects the intellectual property (IP) rights of the original worker, potentially increasing their earnings rather than diminishing them. This article challenges assumptions that AI will work as a pristine weapon to be wielded against sex workers and their livelihoods. Instead, we explore AI’s potential as an asset to protect sex workers’ status as agents and argue for the substantial inclusion of sex workers as thought partners in the future of AI replica technology and legal responses to IP protections threatened by the rise of AI in the USA. This article considers how the sex workers’ response to the rising challenge of AI can influence future IP, AI, and sex tech thought.