The rise of AI-powered chatbot experiences
A tech executive believes it’s just a matter of time until someone develops the next billion-dollar dating service that matches real-life users with AI-generated women.
As explained here, in a blog post on X, Greg Isenberg, the CEO of Late Checkout, revealed that he met a man in Miami who “admitted to me that he spends $10,000/month” on “AI girlfriends.”
“I thought he was kidding,” Isenberg wrote. “But, he’s a 24-year-old single guy who loves it.”
“Some people play video games, I play with AI girlfriends,” the Miami man is quoted as saying when Isenberg asked him what he enjoyed about it.
“I love that I could use voice notes now with my AI girlfriends.”
“I get to customize my AI girlfriend,” the man told Isenberg. “Likes, dislikes, etc. It’s comforting at the end of the day.”
The Miami man mentioned Candy.ai and Kupid.ai as his two favorite websites. “The ultimate AI girlfriend experience” is what Candy.ai claims to provide, with “virtual companions for immersive and personalized chats.”
According to Kupid AI, their AI algorithms are used to create fictional and virtual “companions” that you can communicate with via voice notes.
“It’s kinda like dating apps. You’re not on only one,” the Miami man said.
Isenberg declared that the experience had left him “speechless” and that “someone will build the AI version of Match Group and make $1B+.”
The parent company of dating applications including Plenty of Fish, Hinge, OkCupid, Match.com, and Tinder is Match Group. With the use of technology that can replicate in-person conversations, websites such as Romantic AI provide users with virtual dating partners.
With the use of an app like Romantic AI, you can create the ideal girlfriend who shares your interests and viewpoints. You can feel needed, supported, and able to discuss anything.
Users of Forever Companion, a different app, can have conversations with chatbots that are modeled after well-known social media influencers.
For a few hundred bucks, users of the AI chatbot program Replika can design their own husband or partner. Some platforms, like Soulmate and Nomi.ai, even promote erotic role-playing.
The AI chatbot’s avatar can be customized by users, who can assign personality qualities based on whether they are looking for a friend, mentor, or romantic partner. Any erotic chat would have to contain explicit instructions on what the user would like to happen because the messages could have a “sexting” feel to them.
By selecting the avatar’s clothing and level of openness to sexual behavior, users can customize Nomi.ai to their preferences, in contrast to Replika, which has filters to prevent users from using excessive sexual terminology. Additionally, users can choose to give their chatbots a submissive or dominant role.
A group of Gen Z TikTok users claimed to be “falling for” ChatGPT’s alterego DAN, who has a seductive, manly voice that has drawn comparisons to Christian Grey from “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
According to a recent Infobip survey, 20% of Americans spent time with chatbots. Of them, 47.2% did so out of curiosity, while 23.9% claimed to be lonely and looking for social interaction. About 17% of respondents claimed to have been “AI-phished,” or to have been unaware that they were speaking with a chatbot. 12.2% of respondents to the study said they were looking for sex in a private setting.
The creation of AI-powered virtual assistants is starting to gain popularity, and some customers are shelling out a lot of money for these interactions. Even though new technologies may provide fresh opportunities for social interaction and companionship, they also bring up significant concerns regarding broader social implications.
On the one hand, people who find it difficult to build relationships in the real world may find that these AI-based companions satisfy their demands for intimacy, emotional support, and connection. Users looking for a unique experience would find the AI interactions’ customizability and personalized nature appealing. However relying too much on AI companions at the expense of real connections may result in increased social isolation, make it harder to build true bonds with others, and rely too much on simulated interactions.
Additional consideration should also be given to the ethical implications of these AI dating and companion services. It is important to carefully consider issues related to consent, emotional manipulation, and the possibility of exploiting weaker users. Policymakers and ethicists will need to consider how to establish and manage this new industry ethically as these technologies progress.
In the end, while artificial intelligence and robotics can provide new kinds of companionship, restoring real human interactions ought to come first. In order to maintain a healthy balance between technology-mediated and real social relationships, it will be imperative to foster empathy, emotional intelligence, and face-to-face encounters. As a society, we have to be careful about the way we include these AI companions into our daily lives, giving them the responsible development and application that we need to complement, not take the place of, our basic human desire for deep connections.
