Conventional wisdom tells us that if a new technology can be used to support the sex industry, it most certainly will be.

In that spirit, Oh, a startup that allows users to ‘chat’ with AI-generated model characters, has announced a $4.5m (£3.7m) seed funding round. 

The startup is not the first of its kind that offers immersive artificial conversations of a certain variety, though it does claim to provide a unique opportunity for its customers to profit from it. 

The AI startup’s flagship product, OhChat, is a platform through which users text conversations with a host of characters that learn their…preferences with a personal recommendation engine. 

The platform’s ‘superModel builder’ tool creates an original character or a digital twin which it will then mint into an NFT that can supposedly generate revenue through featuring in content.  

The company said 80% of revenue from content goes to the creator of the character. Its site promises “immersive, uncensored conversations with your favourite characters and digital twins of real-world celebrities and creators”. 

Oh co-founder and CEO Nic Young told UKTN that any depictions of real people are licenced and consented to by the creator. 

The British government recently announced its intention to crack down on non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes, an issue which affects both everyday people and celebrities. 

Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones said new offences introduced could land perpetrators with up to two years in prison. 

While a number of shady services have launched to create sexually explicit content of real people, Young told UKTN that Oh represents an ethical version of this technology. 

“On OhChat, the creator is kept completely safe, without needing to take up their time, as the AI does it all; whilst for fans it’s near-instant, 24/7 available, personalised and cheaper than real content like OF [Only Fans],” said Young. 

The Oh CEO noted that the fact that the company is offering these services in the open is key.  

“Most people in this space stay in the shadows – we’re super confident and secure that we’re doing the right thing here, so we have our names and faces associated with it, as do our VCs.” 

Oh said its seed round came from Tangent, Kosmos Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Bodhi Ventures and Tagus Capital. 

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