We went from an AI anime waifu being a joke on Archer to it being a multi billion dollar industry way too quick. GenZ dudes need to log off and touch grass.
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
-19 points (39.1% liked)
Technology
74799 readers
2787 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
This is literally just an ad for the company.
Thought this was a promoted post until I realised I was on lemmy.
A shameless one.
The idea/statistic is still weirdly interesting and discussion worthy though.
Except it's literally just an advertisement. None of the claims can be trusted to mean anything.
There's at least the specter of sourcing data:
Methodology
- All original statistics cited in this report are based on:
- Internal usage data (AIGirlfriends.ai, Feb–May 2025)
- Proprietary user surveys (n=2,312)
- Public search data via Google Trends, Semrush, SimilarWeb, and App Store rankings
- Community scans of Reddit, Quora, and Twitter using NLP and Pushshift
https://aigirlfriends.ai/blog/research/
Can't trust any conclusions as far as you can throw them, and probably not the specifics of the data, but I suspect the sentiment is worryingly correct.
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.
I'm probably weird, but I'll throw some bucks at an OF just because it's cheap and I think the, uhh, content deserves some reward. But jfc the DMs are weird. No I don't need to chat with the porn girl. Just put the porn in the bag and you can have $5.
Zero chance any of this is true.
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.
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.
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.
You don't believe it's ever happened?
I don't know why the CSS isn't loading on this CNN link, other than maybe because the link is 16 years old. (Probably older than the waifu in question.) But here you go: https://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/16/japan.virtual.wedding/index.html
Insane people exist, that doesn't make it a trend.
Why is this upvoted? It an ad for a company.
Yes, rejection sucks. But not as much as sycophantic LLMs that don't know anything.
I don't want to eat paint chips. Dating AI is even less appealing.
It can summarize love and never disagree or say I dont know👍
Ooooof, what a dark timeline. I'd rather hear "I don't know" over BS any day of the week
But you're not weak, confused and immature, and some societies have large pluralities of folks who are nothing but those things. 😔
Been playing Stardew Valley and I gotta say it's pretty great that I can get virtual hugs and words of affirmation every in-game day from my character's spouse. It sure is better than nothing.
This can’t be real. I don’t believe it.
Can't have sex with an AI though... Yet...
Japan has their top men working on that
I wouldn't be surprised.
We can't trust the Japanese with such an important problem: most of us wouldn't want to have sex with tentacles and cat ears.
most of us wouldn’t want to have sex with tentacles and cat ears
Tentacles, yeah that's probably a more niche kink. But cat boys/girls? I don't know a single person who wouldn't consider that an upgrade.
Well, maybe not mixed together ...
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )
Its wierd to see dating in a owner/property type of relationship.
It's also, in the end, a type of video game. You can't "date" an npc. I really dislike the use of the word.
Is it? Prostitution has existed since forever. Women as property is still a cultural norm in some countries that exist today. We are within living memory of marital rape becoming a crime in the US.
The use of date in terms of prostitutes is also very wierd although maybe common in a nudge nudge wink wink your not a cop are you kind of way.
A large part is fear of rejection and you are paying for an AI girlfriend anyway, it gets pretty blurry.
This is the equivalent to a lobotomy