OnlyFans, AI girlfriends and ‘stepdads’: the porn industry in 2025 – podcast

What does Europe's biggest porn conference reveal about the future of the porn industry? Amelia Gentleman reports

The Xbiz Adult Industry Conference is Europe's largest porn industry gathering. About a thousand content creators travelled to Amsterdam for the event earlier this month. The Guardian reporter Amelia Gentleman was there and describes to Helen Pidd the upbeat atmosphere in the venue, especially when compared with the same event a decade earlier, and explains the role that OnlyFans has played in transforming the industry. The pair discuss the autonomy the site is said to give to the creators, as well as the potential for them to be pushed into making more extreme content.

Finally, Gentleman visits a conference in Prague centred on AI girlfriends' and discusses how this new wing of the industry is marketing itself and how creators feel about it all.