AI Girlfriends: The Opportunity of a Lifetime
April 26, 2024
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Relationships are hard. Navigating each other’s unique desires, personalities, and expectations can be a serious challenge. That is, if one is dating a real person. Why bother when, for just several thousand dollars a month, you can date a tailor-made AI instead? We learn from The Byte, “Tech Exec Predicts Billion-Dollar AI Girlfriend Industry.” Writer Noor Al-Sibai tells us:
“When witnessing the sorry state of men addicted to AI girlfriends, one Miami tech exec saw dollar signs instead of red flags. In a blog-length post on X-formerly-Twitter, former WeWork exec Greg Isenberg said that after meeting a young guy who claims to spend $10,000 a month on so-called ‘AI girlfriends,’ or relationship-simulating chatbots, he realized that eventually, someone is going to capitalize upon that market the way Match Group has with dating apps. ‘I thought he was kidding,’ Isenberg wrote. ‘But, he’s a 24-year-old single guy who loves it.’ To date, Match Group — which owns Tinder, Hinge, Match.com, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish, and several others — has a market cap of more than $9 billion. As the now-CEO of the Late Checkout holding company startup noted, someone is going to build the AI version and make a billion or more.”
Obviously. They are probably collaborating with the makers of sex robots already. Though many strongly object, it seems only a matter of time before fake women replace real ones for a significant number of men. Will this help assuage the loneliness epidemic, or only make it worse? There is also the digital privacy angle to consider. On the other hand, perhaps this is for the best in the long run. The Earth is overpopulated, anyway.
Cynthia Murrell, April 26, 2024