Sexting with AI: Emerging Questions and Preliminary Evidence from Italy

Pearson and Curtis (2025) recently highlighted the urgent need for empirical research examining how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping human intimacy and sexuality, emphasizing the lack of descriptive evidence needed to inform future research in the social sciences. In response to this call, we present findings from a convenience sample of 378 Italian young adults (18–35 years), of whom only 33 reported engaging in sexting with artificial intelligence (AI sexting). Although these data are exploratory and not intended to provide definitive quantitative evidence, they provide a descriptive account of a behavior for which, to our knowledge, empirical evidence from Italy is currently lacking. Accordingly, the purpose of this Letter is not to draw generalizable conclusions but to offer an initial empirical contribution that may help establish the descriptive groundwork advocated by Pearson and Curtis (2025). Beyond documenting the occurrence of AI sexting within our sample, we report preliminary observations regarding its association with selected individual characteristics. These findings should be interpreted as a starting point for future studies based on larger, adequately powered samples.