Yes, AI Girlfriends are extremely likely to have a large impact on both society and the power-balance between the genders in the future. – However, how quickly this impact will be felt depends mostly oh how much investment and progress is made in bringing the technology up to its current potential, which may happen more quickly than me might expect.
Men are Likely to Benefit More
According to data from Google Trends, when comparing the popularity or “AI Girlfriend” with the popularity of “AI Boyfriend” and assuming that most people are looking for heterosexual AI relationships, we see that the interest among women in AI companions is only 18% of what we see in men. – Assuming that both sexes will find the same fulfillment in the technology, we can deduce that men will stand to benefit more from the AI Girlfriend revolution.
If we use common sense, we come to the same conclusion: In my experience men stand to gain more from the features that AI girl apps offer, such as perfect appearance, sexual NSFW content, extreme customization and so on. – Men, especially young men, are also far more lonely than women, which is fertile ground for virtual girl apps.
Women will have to Compete
Women will also benefit from AI boyfriend apps. However, so far women are 5 times less likely to use AI boyfriends, which is unlikely to change much. So overall they will benefit less from the technology itself and may be impacted by the attention of many men being diverted into those apps, instead of real-world women.
Women may have to compete with AI girls for men’s attention, which may greatly change the power balance between genders in favor of men. However in order for that many men to actually consider switching to a virtual relationship, the technology still have to develop closer to photo-realism.
Realistic Graphics will Change the Game
Having talked to many men about the subject of virtual partners in the past, I can confidently say that mainstream opinion among men is that: “The AI has to look better than my Girlfriend.” That is a sentence that I have heard from many people in one form or another and I can confidently say that many normal everyday men will only ever try an AI woman, when they catch up to real women in looks. – The thing is that we already have near-photo realistic graphics in game engines like Unreal Engine 5, The only thing that separates from this new world is developers finding a way to integrate AI Girlfriend apps into game engines and making the software easily accessible on all devices.
Image: This is a game model in Unreal Engine 5. Game graphics have just reached photo-realism. Lets wait for AIGFs to catch up.
“The technology to create photo-realistic AI women already exists in Games, but still has to get implemented into this particular application.”
Samuel Steiner
The Impact on Society and the World
I personally believe that the impact of AI mates on society will be severe, but inevitable. Being a man and being married, I know that women are much of the reason why men strife to succeed. Many of us want to provide for our wife and our family, we want to impress women with our influence and success. – Once there is an alternative to real women, there is an alternate way through life where success is unnecessary as long as you have enough money to pay for your wife/girlfriend subscription.
There will be many men that will check out of society and dating completely. As women ask more and more of men: Many are asking for 6 foot, 6 figures, 12inches, perfect everything and a cherry on top. – There will be some, if not many, men that will simply give up and settle for an AI that may not be real, but will have its own advantages. The decreasing need for success and a lot of money to impress and provide for women may also lead to more men checking out of the career life, which could devastate the economy. Birth rates would plummet, which would disrupt society and the economy even further.
Will AI save the Day?
All these likely impacts of AI relationships on society, the genders, the economy and humanity itself do sound scary, but the thing that will create the problem may also be able to solve it. – AI is already used to replace workers everywhere, which may result in a totally different world where humans will have to work less and less and have more time to spare. – This additional time to form relationships, have kids, meet new people and enjoy life instead of struggling through life every day may just mitigate a lot of the negative effects of AI romances. – It all depends on how wealth is distributed in this brave new world where one man can do the work that 1.000.000 people used to do. One thing is for certain: Humanity and society will be forever changed by AI technology.