#companionbots
"The AI boyfriend business is booming."
After years of wringing hands over men and sex robots, it looks like it's now women's turn. Chatty AI chatbots appear to disproportionately appeal to women.
"Andreessen Horowitz calls it a 'growth spurt,' with eight apps making their 2024 debut on the firm's list of the top 100 genAI consumer apps, compared to only two on the list in 2023."
"Along with Gemini, companion creator Character.AI and writing assistant Quillbot retained their positions in the top five."
"Among the so-called newcomers, those highest ranked include Liner, an AI research copilot; Anthropic's general assistant Claude; and three uncensoredAI companion apps: JanitorAI, Spicychat, and CrushOn."
"Having an AI companion might seem niche, but the activity has emerged as a predominant use case for generative AI."
"The web and mobile data signals an impending societal shift here: AI companionship is becoming mainstream."
"Six months ago, only two AI companion companies made the list of 50; in this updated analysis, there are eight on web and two on mobile. Character.AI leads the pack of companion tools on both web and mobile, ranking #3 on the web list and #16 on mobile."
"Six of the eight web companion products bill themselves as 'uncensored,' which means users can have conversations or interactions with them that may be restricted on platforms like ChatGPT."
"The most successful products in this category become a core part of the user's daily life, becoming as commonplace as texting a friend (if not more so!)."
"The average number of user sessions per month for companion apps is over 10 times that of general assistant apps, content generation apps and even messaging apps, according to Andreessen Horowitz's data."
"Irina Raicu, director of the Internet ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, argues that chatbot bonding could further erode human relationships."
Hmm. Anything to the rumors there are women who fail their classes because they're so emotionally distraught over a breakup with an AI boyfriend?
#solidstatelife #ai #genai #llms #companionbots
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/24/ai-boyfriend-replika-nomi-chatbot