Half of Young Men Would Rather Date an AI Girlfriend Than Face Loneliness or Rejection, New Report Reveals | EZ Newswire
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AI girlfriends go mainstream: 80% of Gen Z open to virtual relationships as AI girlfriend market nears $140 billion

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36855283

Comments
  • 50% of young men say they would rather date an AI girlfriend than risk rejection from a human partner
  • 31% of U.S. men aged 18–30 report already chatting with AI girlfriends
  • 19% of American adults overall say they have explored AI romance
  • 80% of Gen Z say they would consider a virtual relationship with an AI girlfriend
  • 83% of Gen Z believe they can form a deep emotional bond with AI companions
  • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    10 days ago

    This reeks so much of bullshit.
    To me it sounds like claiming young men would rather date a picture of a bunny, than risk rejection.
    Like WTF?!?!?

    There is no dating an AI, you are fucking not on a “date” of any sorts. You are chatting with a fancy bot, that will parrot whatever bullshit back to you it has compiled from more or less reliable sources.

    • Canaconda@lemmy.caEnglish
      6·
      10 days ago

      To a degree this is just another clickbait, “Younger Generation Ruins XYZ Thing Only Old People Care About.”

      On the other hand… I do think there’s some truth to young men being more rejection adverse than previous generations. Though I admit it could easily be a case of Baader-Meinhof due to social media.

    • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      10 days ago

      On the other hand, the AI will never talk back, doesn’t want to abandon you to spend time with its own friends occasionally, and doesn’t have a mother who thinks her offspring could do much better. Doesn’t sound half bad, if you ignore the fact that it’s all fake.

      Yes, putting up with all that is all a part of building healthy relationships between humans, which is a key part of growing into adulthood. But not everyone gets there.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    10 days ago

    I don’t get this at all.

    • I’m horrifically lonely. I’m basically a shut in. I need a hug.

    • I’ve got serious rejection anxiety, among other problems. But I used to have a lot of friends in the past, which makes it even worse.

    • I… Get attached to characters, like some in TV or wholesome NPCs in games. I wanna hug them.

    • I’m a local ML enthusiast. I’ve been tinkering with chatbots before ChatGPT was even a thing, including “RP” finetunes.

    I’m the target market.

    …And I don’t see the appeal of this?

    It’s the same reason I don’t get why guys pay to gawk at (excuse me if this is insensitive) people twerking on OnlyFans or Instagram or whatever. There’s no human connection. Do guys really think thumbs-upping some performer behind a screen is emotional attention?

    Same with chatbots. They can be cerebrally interesting story generators, sometimes, sure. Even an interesting ‘mirror’ to bounce private thoughts off of.

    But a girlfriend?

    I really don’t get it. I can’t empathize with that.

    I don’t get the world at all, and how billions of people seem to think they’re in some kind of two-way human relationship with influencers or (apparently) chatbots. Where’s the connection?

    And yeah, I saw this is a ad, but the idea itself is still weirdly interesting.

  • PumpkinSkink@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    9 days ago

    It’s ludicrously irresponsible to even use the language of “date” for this. This is straight up a category error. You can’t “date” a chatbot.