Satsuki Ai is raising eyebrows after her debut in Shueisha’s Playboy Magazine — but not because of her beauty. Instead, it’s because she’s not even a real person.
The rise of AI has resulted in a heated debate regarding ethics, copyright laws and the future of several key industries… but now, even the modeling world is facing competition from our robot overlords.
In April 2025, Japanese publication Shueisha’s Weekly Playboy — not to be confused with the American magazine — published an edition with a cover model named Satsuki Ai.
At first glance, Miss Satsuki seems like a real gal who was photographed specifically for the magazine. However, the truth is wildly different.
AI-generated model sparks debate after Playboy debut
Satsuki Ai is an AI-generated model created by Shueisha, a Japanese publishing company best known for manga like One Piece, Dandadan and Boruto.
Although she graced the cover of Weekly Playboy on Monday, April 14, she was first revealed in summer 2023 — and her appearance was already causing quite a stir online.
In a tweet promoting Satsuki’s initial release, the magazine described her as a “little sister type beautiful girl with a ‘raccoon face’ that embodies every man’s ideal.”
“Even if she doesn’t exist in real life, the love that blossoms within is genuine,” the company wrote.
Users instantly flocked to the comments section, with one laying out the immediate benefits of using Satsuki instead of a real model: “No scandals, no need to adjust schedules, no agency NGs, no fees.”
However, others were far less happy about Satsuki, with one urging the publication to “take photos of people.”
“I wonder if people can just ignore it, just like they would ignore a real idol if they weren’t interested,” another posited. “If there’s anything that would make people angry, it would be if it was revealed later that ‘this girl was actually an AI.’”
Satsuki’s Playboy debut comes amid a growing conversation around AI, especially as ChatGPT’s Ghibli image trend has taken over social media. In fact, the fad went so viral that it’s legality was even brought up by Japanese lawmakers in a political meeting.
Content shared from www.dexerto.com.