Inside the diabolical world of very convincing AI thirst traps that are scamming gay men on social media

This story was originally published in The Highlight. To get access to member-exclusive stories like this every month, become a Vox Member today. Derek Lam has more than 31,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 40,000 on X as of this writing. He is shirtless a lot, he dances a lot, and he is shirtless dancing a lot, which may explain how he got so many fans. His comments are filled with compliments (“beautiful”) in different languages (“hombre bello y sensual”) and superlatives (“this might be the…