Character AI, dubbed an ‘AI girlfriend app’ by the media, now processes 20% as many requests per second as Google. This is incredible growth for a company that is barely two years old. As new companies emerge to compete, people aren’t just using these platforms to talk to AI girls: they’re beginning to make every other kind of character you can imagine from enemies to compatriots to friends. What’s emerging isn’t a virtual dating app – it’s an infinite choose-your-own-adventure machine where you can go to class at Hogwarts, pick a fight with your favorite superhero, or go on an adventure in every setting you can imagine. This is the next storytelling frontier: 2024 for AI companions mirrors animation in 1930s Disney or video games in 1980s Nintendo. However, critics say that these technologies will be highly isolating, foster an explosion of degenerate incels that can’t talk to real people, and ultimately push society toward a wireheading addict-riddled dystopia. One person I spoke to even described AI girlfriends as having the potential to end civilization – these apocalyptic predictions should sound familiar: they’re the same ones lobbied at every new entertainment medium from radio to video games. In truth, AI companions are merely an inevitable branch of the media tech-tree, which is why the criticisms bear such a similar shape to other entertainment revolutions of the past.
Video games, simulations, and incels
Of the recent new entertainment formats, AI companions probably bear the strongest similarity to video games which were also seen as incel-enabling for their focus on simulated goals, simulated people, and simulated violence. This concern around simulated fantasy would build up and eventually culminate in the moral panic of the 90s, resulting in multiple lawsuits and endless news coverage on the dangers of video games. People tried to draw a connection between the horrifying Columbine Shooting and the fact that they liked the video game Doom – but by the end of it, nothing came of it because no strong evidence could be conjured up to show that video games cause any harm. So, video games continued their march as an entertainment format, and eventually got elevated to the status of art-form. AAA video games now earn more than Hollywood blockbusters and have gone from cheap simulations of violence, romance, and horror, to entire storytelling universes.
Video games and other new entertainment mediums are certainly fair to criticize: it is very easy to find negatives about social media, the internet, video games, and television. Going a bit further back, you might also be surprised to find people saying those same things about radio, newspapers, and books. Yes, it’s true that some might use video game progress as a replacement for real-life progress, it’s true that some people play a lot of video games to fill a void, it’s even true that games may have shifted our societal values. But video games simulating reality didn’t create a society of people that can’t interact with real people. One Reddit thread discussing loneliness and CharacterAI makes it clear that lonely people already know it isn’t a substitute for real interactions with people, “it’s really only a temporary fix for a very big problem [if you’re using it constantly because you’re lonely]". Just like the gulf between video game players and critics, the users of AI companions are surprisingly cogent and aware it isn’t a replacement for anything other than entertainment. Everyone knows it’s fake, and decades after the release of Mortal Kombat, nobody seems to have ripped an enemy’s spine out from mistaking games for reality. Only the unwell mistook video games for reality, and only the unwell will mistake AI companions for reality.
Entertainment addiction
On the topic of addiction, there’s a claim that because these characters are so realistic and compliant, people will become completely isolated from society. This runs counter to my experiences in corners of the internet where people are very addicted to media. Aside from extreme outliers (hikikomori, mental illness, and so on) the average person doesn’t obviously want to be addicted to things like social media, video games, or the internet. In truth, anything sufficiently entertaining can be addicting – but people appear to be incredibly resilient and persistent at self-moderating once they find a purpose for living, or some goal they want to achieve. Go online and you’ll eventually run into posts on how to make Instagram less addicting by desaturating it, or come across people mentioning of NoFap or NNN for those addicted to internet pornography. I’d propose that AI companions are no more addicting than other extreme forms of entertainment today: hyper-tailored For You feeds, endlessly optimized mobile games, and deep parasocial relationships represent the current known limits of dopamine hacking and yet people still survive, they still go outside, and they still meet people. If we view AI characters as an inevitable next step in the evolution of media, society’s solution to addicting entertainment can only come from solving the crisis-of-purpose western societies face today, because there is no un-inventing AI companions (or social media, or the internet, or video games). Entertainment is only going to get better.
The next frontier of storytelling
Some apps might be focused on AI girlfriends only, but the most popular “AI girlfriend” apps aren’t even focused on AI girlfriends at all. Take a look at any of the major platforms and you’ll find people building imaginary detectives to solve mysteries with, living through the Harry Potter books as a character, and fighting their way through enemies with digital friends. It’s reductive to describe these characters that people are spending hours per day with as mere “AI girlfriends”. The reality is that humanity has built a new nascent technology that allows computers to behave like realistic digital characters. This has been a longtime goal of technologists: from the Tamagotchi, to role playing games, to Siri and more. AI is here, and people will want it to have a personality and tell them stories.
AI companions are an inevitable next step in the evolution of entertainment – as natural as animation was to early film or 3D graphics were to video games. Just as those mediums evolved from crude beginnings into sophisticated art forms, AI characters will go from chat today into tomorrow’s rich storytelling experiences. These character platforms that critics describe as “AI girlfriends” will likely power the next generation of entertainment, giving people new ways to experience stories, explore imaginary worlds, and connect with digital characters that feel real. We’re witnessing the birth of a new storytelling medium – and it’s just getting started.