The trend of AI companions is another step towards humans putting less value on real human connections, which only further erodes real-life communities. Many people (more than before) will succumb to being too deeply immersed in virtual worlds, and it will only increase the pathology of society to a degree not before seen.
These AI companies are incredibly irresponsible and contemptible.
I'm right between GenZ and Millennial. There is something crazy going on with GenZ IMO. It is like pulling teeth to go out and do anything with GenZ friends. Maybe my millennial friends are more bored so its easier to do stuff but it just blows my mind. I hate to get all "phone bad" but it seems scrolling and doing absolutely nothing is the default setting for so many people. I feel like this stuff certainly won't make it any better.
I'm also between GenZ and Millennial. I don't have many (any?) GenZ friends, but I feel like I say "no" to social events the most out of my peers (and have for a while). I frankly don't know how to juggle it all: between maintaining important relationships (two partners, calling family regularly, keeping up with close friends), household stuff (cooking, cleaning, laundry, administrative overhead), exercise/my own hobbies (going to the gym once a week), I feel like I barely have time to do... Anything, let alone have downtime to myself.
I have (single) peers and friends who maintain wall-to-wall social calendars, so I've assumed for a while that the difference is just the amount of engagement multiple romantic entanglements takes, but maybe I'm missing something.
I'd love to "do nothing" much more than I can (read a book, work on a project, tidy my basement, learn a new skill...)
I think it's the opposite. You can't be hyper-social in a thousand hour long sushi packed train ride. Urbanization suppresses real human connections. That creates demand for mock/fake environments that simulate "parking lot" environments where it would not be too inconsiderate to be social. All the successful examples of these parasocial contents eventually grow communities around them.
(Not that I think this particular one goes anywhere, no way.)
Sorry, but you just made my point. Urban train rides are already an effect of advancing technology. Being packed like sushi simply wouldn't happen if we hadn't become addicted to advancing technology. That's a central tenet of technology which only occured around the 19th century. AI is the next stage and the apex of this process which alienate people from each other.
Maybe it's not such a bad thing. People who go outside will be more intentionally looking to socialize and you'll feel less pressure to keep to yourself.
Actually, it is a bad thing. Because people who have a slight difficulty with socializing, probably because of too much screen time, will be sucked into virtual words with AI companions and not have the chance to learn to life a fulfilling life. Not sure what you mean about "pressure to keep to yourself" because I think a normal person shouldn't feel any pressure when going outside, whether to socialize or not.
It's not an alternative. It's a very tiny effect affecting a small subpopulation. The issue of changing the entire social structure to further eradicate community is vastly larger and more important than a few weird guys, sorry to say.
Is there any market/demand for AI companions for females (i.e. https://jaimee.ai), or has this trend of AI companions vastly for males? I suspect the latter, but curious if anyone has evidence beyond Jaimee AI of the former.
You'd be _very_ surprised. This isn't reddit so I probably don't have to write a disclaimer about generalizations... but just in case, I'm speaking in general terms.
Just look at who buys/consumes most written romance. Overwhelmingly women. Now, a super simple AI that just says what you want to hear is different from long-form romance novels... but I think we could see something approaching 50/50.
I personally can't see the appeal. It seems like a fun toy for a bit. Super impressive stuff but the idea of treating it like a human is a bit depressing to me.
>I personally can't see the appeal. It seems like a fun toy for a bit. Super impressive stuff but the idea of treating it like a human is a bit depressing to me.
I wouldn't mind chatbot trained on Kant's or Hegel's work and asking Hegel for example what he thinks of some modern day issue. I know character.ai has historical characters as chatbots but they seem like toys(I agree with you on that) and they do not cite historical sources.
you'd be surprised on how deranged some people are, no matter the sexes. Having a Prince Charming / Manic Pixie Dream Girl that always agree with you will be the utopia for them, and amplifying their mental issues. Soon they'll have their world view warped and that not even considering bad actors. If politically, criminally or economically motive is poisoning the model, they'll be very vulnerable.
It's mostly for males because the developers behind them are targeting themselves. However I would imagine the market for female users would likely be equal if not larger...
Well, there is an app called Tolan (alien AI friend) that has been very successful and the devs have said that 80% of the users are young women.
I myself have released an app in this realm a few days ago, it's very much a work in progress, but my goal was to let the AI feel more like a computer and less like a companion/boyfriend. I think the relationships these companies are pushing will be harmful in the long term.
From the few of my friends who have talked about this the majority have actually been women. I think the image gen lagged behind the LLM companions because of the computational intensity plus VLMS are just more complex. Because of that it seems like it's been more interesting to women who prefer prose to visuals.
Yes, there was a LastWeekTobight episode on AI Slop. There is a product which is popular amongst women, biker boyfriend and sadistic boyfriend were one of the most popular AI-agent flavours.
If there were the falsehood list for NSFW contents, there has to be "women must despise sexualized females, so all female depictions must be for mens to consume" pretty high up in it.
richest man on earth, father of 20+ kids whom he never sees and bears no responsibility of, complaning about falling birth rates and invests $200 million to make an anime AI porn character chatbot
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These AI companies are incredibly irresponsible and contemptible.
I'm right between GenZ and Millennial. There is something crazy going on with GenZ IMO. It is like pulling teeth to go out and do anything with GenZ friends. Maybe my millennial friends are more bored so its easier to do stuff but it just blows my mind. I hate to get all "phone bad" but it seems scrolling and doing absolutely nothing is the default setting for so many people. I feel like this stuff certainly won't make it any better.
I have (single) peers and friends who maintain wall-to-wall social calendars, so I've assumed for a while that the difference is just the amount of engagement multiple romantic entanglements takes, but maybe I'm missing something.
I'd love to "do nothing" much more than I can (read a book, work on a project, tidy my basement, learn a new skill...)
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(Not that I think this particular one goes anywhere, no way.)
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If you've got beliefs and you insist on mouthing off on things women find offensive, they won't touch you. It's not a mystery.
An ever changing and contradictory anti-concept.
Just look at who buys/consumes most written romance. Overwhelmingly women. Now, a super simple AI that just says what you want to hear is different from long-form romance novels... but I think we could see something approaching 50/50.
I personally can't see the appeal. It seems like a fun toy for a bit. Super impressive stuff but the idea of treating it like a human is a bit depressing to me.
I wouldn't mind chatbot trained on Kant's or Hegel's work and asking Hegel for example what he thinks of some modern day issue. I know character.ai has historical characters as chatbots but they seem like toys(I agree with you on that) and they do not cite historical sources.
It can stay for long term even permanently.
It's very very bad.
Developers don't need to _create bots_, just wrap the UI around the interface to the model that can pretend good enough.
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I myself have released an app in this realm a few days ago, it's very much a work in progress, but my goal was to let the AI feel more like a computer and less like a companion/boyfriend. I think the relationships these companies are pushing will be harmful in the long term.
My app if you are curious: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lonely-bots-3d-ai-friends/id67...
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