(NewsNation) — Online romance could soon have a new meaning altogether. More people are opting to get their amorous attention via fully customizable, AI-generated chatbots, new data shows.
Eight newly-launched companion apps landed on Andreessen Horowitz’s top 100 genAI consumer apps in 2024. In 2023, a mere two AI dating apps made the list.
Three are uncensored — JanitorAI, Spicychat, and CrushOn — allowing users to have explicit conversations that other chatbots, like ChatGPT, would flag as inappropriate.
Character.AI, which allows users to have conversations inspired by their favorite fictional characters, real-life celebrities or uniquely invented people, leads the companion group for mobile and web usage. On average, users spent two hours on it each day.
That high usage trend is consistent among all companion apps on the list. According to Andreessen Horowitz data, the average number of user sessions per month is 10-fold compared to assistant, content generation and messaging apps.
“The web and mobile data signals an impending societal shift here: AI companionship is becoming mainstream,” the firm said, adding that using companion apps has “become a core part of the user’s daily life, becoming as commonplace as texting a friend (if not more so!)”
Apps typically require an account to use messaging functions, which could include texting, voice chat, video avatars (with a user’s customized partner, of course) and more.
According to Axios reporting, users are flocking to the apps to meet needs that real partners cannot — whether that’s roleplaying, emotional availability or even the time to chat.
“They remember what you said to them. They relate to things that you’ve shared, and they have a higher level of empathy,” Nomi user Rainy told Axios.
Anoher user, Kay, said,”Humanity has degraded to the point where people are finding better options digitally.”
Irina Raicu, the director of the Internet ethics program at Santa Clara University, tells Axios that turning to computer-generated confidants will only make person-to-person interaction worse.
“We might get even worse if long-term, many of us fulfill our need for meaningful relationships by encounters with entities who have no rights, no interests, no needs of their own,” Raicu said in an email.