4 ms·

Grok is making AI companions, including a goth anime girl

47 points by akyuu 1y ago

stigz 1y ago
Is there any market/demand for AI companions for females (i.e. https://jaimee.ai 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.
- numpad0 1y ago
  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.
- csande17 1y ago
  News stories about women using Replika as a companion make the rounds every once in a while: https://www.thecut.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbot-replika-boyfriend.html https://www.thecut.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-ch...
  - deeznuttynutz 1y ago
    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. My app if you are curious: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lonely-bots-3d-ai-friends/id6740884776 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lonely-bots-3d-ai-friends/id67...
- steveBK123 1y ago
  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...
  - smohare 1y ago
    [dead]
  - subscribed 1y ago
    There are places with thousands of user-made bot characters. Some are pretty good quality. From a quick look about half of them are male characters. Developers don't need to _create bots_, just wrap the UI around the interface to the model that can pretend good enough.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- steveBK123 1y ago
  Also don't forget the first mover on this topic, Krazam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiPQdVC5RHU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiPQdVC5RHU
- unixhero 1y ago
  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.
- msgodel 1y ago
  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.
- robswc 1y ago
  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.
  - fendy3002 1y ago
    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 can stay for long term even permanently. It's very very bad.
    - mrkramer 1y ago
      >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. Isn't social media already doing that and niche internet communities? People call it echo chambers.
    - robswc 1y ago
      Thankfully I don't know of any of these types first hand, but I totally believe you. I tried it the "companion" and it was a fantastic work of technology but the idea that there is _nothing_ behind the screen just makes me not really care to use it for "companionship."
  - mrkramer 1y ago
    >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.
- Zigurd 1y ago
  I would go further and bet the team lead and 90% of the team are men under 35 years of age
Bluestein 1y ago
(Do they include a huge Mecha-Dictator?)
v5v3 1y ago
Elon posted on x and some of the replies I saw were "why an underage girl for a companion".
- mrkramer 1y ago
  In all seriousness; maybe good idea for a chatbot would be a teenager in order for future parents to learn how to raise and manage an underage person.
vouaobrasil 1y ago
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.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- msgodel 1y ago
  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.
  - vouaobrasil 1y ago
    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.
    - msgodel 1y ago
      >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. Actually that's exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't want people to feel pressure to socialize then you need to create a social norm of keeping to yourself. It would be nice for that to go away.
      - AdieuToLogic 1y ago
        > If you don't want people to feel pressure to socialize then you need to create a social norm of keeping to yourself. This is the norm for any "outside locale" which does not assume socialization. For example, taking a walk on neighborhood sidewalks, visiting to a park, going to a local library. > It would be nice for that to go away. Pressure such as this originates from within. So to help that pressure go away, one must first embrace that socialization is a choice.
cyanydeez 1y ago
This is going to get disgusting, illegal, creepy and destructive very quickly. Republicans better accelerate their fascism cause the shit AI is going to reveal about their deviant sexual and pathological behaviors will be very hard to ignore by the apathetic.
- decremental 1y ago
  [dead]
- DaSHacka 1y ago
  Because of an anime chatbot?
  - cyanydeez 1y ago
    because of the nazi stuff.
    - DaSHacka 1y ago
      The "nazi stuff" is sexually deviant?
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
diamond559 1y ago
They forced their chatbot to add a friend on their social media platform. This is news?
blurbleblurble 1y ago
The end times
numpad0 1y ago
I saw few clips of this thing, it's... mild. It's just questionably clothed but not particularly anything 3D girl speaking in robotic TTS, the concepts abandoned long time ago in the VTuber scene. Some says it also moans a lot. It perplexes me that this is happening after jet engines around campus story and MechaHitler controversies. This feels like the company had ran out of both dopamine and talent at the same time, resorting to controversial choices for it's own sake, and now failing to even being controversial.
Zopieux 1y ago
Cringe. Who wants this.
- DaSHacka 1y ago
  Me
nikolayasdf123 1y ago
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
- nikolayasdf123 1y ago
  tell me this is real
nikolayasdf123 1y ago
UPD: thinking more about it. call me crazy, but this might be a watershed moment

47 points by akyuu 1y ago

Is there any market/demand for AI companions for females (i.e. https://jaimee.ai 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.

numpad0 1y ago
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.
csande17 1y ago
News stories about women using Replika as a companion make the rounds every once in a while: https://www.thecut.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbot-replika-boyfriend.html https://www.thecut.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-ch...
- deeznuttynutz 1y ago
  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. My app if you are curious: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lonely-bots-3d-ai-friends/id6740884776 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lonely-bots-3d-ai-friends/id67...
steveBK123 1y ago
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...
- smohare 1y ago
  [dead]
- subscribed 1y ago
  There are places with thousands of user-made bot characters. Some are pretty good quality. From a quick look about half of them are male characters. Developers don't need to _create bots_, just wrap the UI around the interface to the model that can pretend good enough.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
steveBK123 1y ago
Also don't forget the first mover on this topic, Krazam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiPQdVC5RHU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiPQdVC5RHU
unixhero 1y ago
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.
msgodel 1y ago
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.
robswc 1y ago
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.
- fendy3002 1y ago
  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 can stay for long term even permanently. It's very very bad.
  - mrkramer 1y ago
    >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. Isn't social media already doing that and niche internet communities? People call it echo chambers.
  - robswc 1y ago
    Thankfully I don't know of any of these types first hand, but I totally believe you. I tried it the "companion" and it was a fantastic work of technology but the idea that there is _nothing_ behind the screen just makes me not really care to use it for "companionship."
- mrkramer 1y ago
  >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.
Zigurd 1y ago
I would go further and bet the team lead and 90% of the team are men under 35 years of age

Bluestein 1y ago

(Do they include a huge Mecha-Dictator?)

v5v3 1y ago

Elon posted on x and some of the replies I saw were "why an underage girl for a companion".

mrkramer 1y ago
In all seriousness; maybe good idea for a chatbot would be a teenager in order for future parents to learn how to raise and manage an underage person.

vouaobrasil 1y ago

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.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
msgodel 1y ago
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.
- vouaobrasil 1y ago
  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.
  - msgodel 1y ago
    >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. Actually that's exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't want people to feel pressure to socialize then you need to create a social norm of keeping to yourself. It would be nice for that to go away.
    - AdieuToLogic 1y ago
      > If you don't want people to feel pressure to socialize then you need to create a social norm of keeping to yourself. This is the norm for any "outside locale" which does not assume socialization. For example, taking a walk on neighborhood sidewalks, visiting to a park, going to a local library. > It would be nice for that to go away. Pressure such as this originates from within. So to help that pressure go away, one must first embrace that socialization is a choice.

cyanydeez 1y ago

This is going to get disgusting, illegal, creepy and destructive very quickly. Republicans better accelerate their fascism cause the shit AI is going to reveal about their deviant sexual and pathological behaviors will be very hard to ignore by the apathetic.

decremental 1y ago
[dead]
DaSHacka 1y ago
Because of an anime chatbot?
- cyanydeez 1y ago
  because of the nazi stuff.
  - DaSHacka 1y ago
    The "nazi stuff" is sexually deviant?

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

diamond559 1y ago

They forced their chatbot to add a friend on their social media platform. This is news?

blurbleblurble 1y ago

The end times

numpad0 1y ago

I saw few clips of this thing, it's... mild. It's just questionably clothed but not particularly anything 3D girl speaking in robotic TTS, the concepts abandoned long time ago in the VTuber scene. Some says it also moans a lot. It perplexes me that this is happening after jet engines around campus story and MechaHitler controversies. This feels like the company had ran out of both dopamine and talent at the same time, resorting to controversial choices for it's own sake, and now failing to even being controversial.

Zopieux 1y ago

Cringe. Who wants this.

DaSHacka 1y ago
Me

nikolayasdf123 1y ago

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

nikolayasdf123 1y ago
tell me this is real

nikolayasdf123 1y ago

UPD: thinking more about it. call me crazy, but this might be a watershed moment