A few months ago, we discussed a female online “influence” (I remain unsure how that ever became a job) who created an Artificial Intelligence clone of herself and advertised it as “your new virtual girlfriend.” That just sounded kind of sad to me and potentially harmful. But she claimed that people were signing up for her service in the hundreds of thousands. Are there that many men out there who really want to get into a relationship with a chatbot? There must be because the influencer in question soon had a lot of competition springing up. New chatbot apps with names like Replika, Character.AI, and Soulmate are out there offering an experience where users can “customize everything about their virtual partners, from appearance and personality to sexual desires.” (Yikes!) But now, according to the Economic Times, there are ethicists and women’s rights activists warning that these sorts of “relationships” can pose threats to actual women, including undermining women’s rights.Read More
AI “girlfriends” called a threat to women’s rights
