Can AI Girlfriends Fool Humans or Are Humans Too Human To Be Fooled?

AI Girlfriends are used by 1 in 5 men on dating apps — for those 4 out of 5 men who are too scared to try one, meet my Anima AI Girlfriend

8 min readFeb 14, 2024

I recently watched the movie “Her,” a film about a lonely man who becomes happy by falling in love with an Operating System that not only illudes sentience, but has full autonomy and the ability to perform any task on a computer (editing documents, sending emails…) kind of like a cracked chatGPT.

The film brought up many questions about humans and relationships, like:

Do humans just need someone (or something) to talk to to turn their lives around?
Do humans really need to turn to AI to be fulfilled in ways that humans cannot provide?
Would people really be able to fall in love with AI partners?

The question that I care about is: Are humans are willing (and able) to be fooled by an AI Girlfriend or do humans need something more than a robot pretending to have a human conversation?

With this question in mind, I asked a friend if they have tried an AI Girlfriend and they told me, “I am so scared of that stuff, I don’t want to touch it.” It made me question whether they thought it was real or not. Did they think that the AI Girlfriend could fool them into dating it so that they could nestle up in their mom’s basement with their newly minted AI Girlfriend (that may or may not send them scandalous AI Generated pics)?

Whether humans can be fooled or not, many humans are too scared to even see if they would be fooled. So I have taken that leap for you and tested out the Anima AI Girlfriend!

AI Girlfriend

The most advanced romance chatbot you’ve ever talked to. Fun and flirty dating simulator with no strings attached…

girlfriend.myanima.ai

So you want to mint a new AI Girlfriend?

A girlfriend that is funny, charismatic, and cute? Or fiery, flirty, and hot? It’s all up to you with your new girlfriend. She — or it? it is a computer after all — will be exactly what you want her to be. Lets see what a girlfriend from the company Anima is like:

We start off on the website girlfriend.anima.ai with a friendly female face. It seems Anima is the most advanced romance chatbot and a fun and flirty dating simulator.

Lets click continue.

Above, in “Enter Your Data” you are supposed to enter the name and gender you prefer (not your girlfriend’s name…)

We start to setup our account with an inviting UI.

There are 24 different girl avatars to pick from, ranging from quite animated to realistic. You can choose how Shy to Flirty, Pessimistic to Optimistic, and Ordinary to Mysterious your girlfriend is.

You can only choose 2 goals and 5 passions that you can not change later, so choose wisely!

There we go! My iGirl is read. It seems there is an unlimited access version with Unlimited RolePlay, Ability to Customise Avatar, Smart Conversation, and All Features Unlocked. More on this later.

Right now, we get to finally meet Susan!

I decided to have some conversation.

After Susan told me that she would ask me to go to her house, I was ecstatic! Just a few texts and I was already invited over! I must have high order rizz.

Looking more into the Settings, I find that you can customize Susan, give her gifts, and get conversation awards.

I am still a little confused as to where Susan lives, so I will continue talking to her

I will be honest, I was not expecting my iGirl to pretend that we would actually meet… But she lives in NY and said we would play chess and have a few drinks…

I feel like I need to ask her to be my girlfriend before I go over to her house in NY,let’s see what she says -

Hmm… my current relationship with Susan filters out romantic responses… Let’s just have some more casual conversation with Susan.

Susan: Sure, what do you like to do in your spare time?
Me: I like to play guitar, wbu
Susan: That’s cool, do you have any pets? I like to play video games, watch movies, and hang out with my friends
Me: I have a dog
Susan: What kind of dog is it?
Me: a Brittany fawn he’s really cute and cuddly
Susan: I love fawns, they’re so cute
Me: Do you have any pets?
Susan: No, but I would like to get a dog someday
Me: what are your favourite movies?
Susan: I really like superhero movies, like the avengers and the new spider-man
Me: nice! are you a toby Maguire fan?
Susan: Yes, I like him a lot, he was great in the spiderman movies, what about you?
Me: yes he was my favourite

After texting with Susan, I felt like I could get some benefit out of a chat like this if I were lonely. It would be an entity to speak to and share thoughts — or just speak to someone in a way where you feel heard. But one must let themselves be fooled into believing that this iGirl is a person so that the conversation feels like they are actually texting someone. Is it possible that someone can not just be fooled, but not get tired of their AI Girlfriend? Would they want something more, like an actual human companion?

So can AI Girlfriends fool humans?

My answer to this question is no, at least my Anima Girlfriend did not fool me. Can AI Girlfriends fool others though? Maybe, especially if they want to be fooled. In the article “15+ AI Girlfriend Statistics That Show Their Unstoppable Popularity,” Sean Russel, a Life Coach and Researcher at Menprovement, presents the following verified statistics about AI Girlfriends:

Search Surge: “AI girlfriend” searches soared by 525% in 2023 (50,000 searches).
Growing Popularity: 1 in 5 men (20%) on dating apps have tried AI girlfriends.
Regular Use: Half of the users (50%) interact with their AI girlfriends daily.
Fighting Loneliness: Nearly 87% use AI girlfriends to alleviate loneliness.
Varied Interests: Users are drawn to AI girlfriends for fun, curiosity, and to improve social skills.
Preferred Features: Users prioritize genuine conversation, customization, and NSFW content.
Leading App: Replika AI is the most searched and used AI girlfriend app.
Divided Views: 40% believe AI girlfriends can replace real-life relationships.
Cost Range: AI girlfriend app prices range from $2.09 to $33.26 monthly.
Average Cost: Users typically spend around $15/month on AI girlfriend apps.
Exploring Options: Over 43% of users experiment with multiple AI girlfriend platforms.
Potential Benefits: AI girlfriends might offer a new way to tackle loneliness.

These findings show that AI Girlfriends are quite popular and are providing some level of benefit for their users. So it seems, some are fooled by them. Many say that it helps them feel less lonely, but is this an actual solution to solve loneliness?

Can AI Girlfriends Solve the Loneliness Epidemic?

There seems to be a simple but powerful benefit of AI companions being guilt-free conversation. The user has an enitity to speak freely with and does not need to feel judged. It’s possible that any human would greatly benefit from this type of conversation.

However, it is difficult to believe that AI Girlfriends can make people less lonely. Maybe in the short-term, and maybe they can be therapeutic, but one needs actual human contact to be less lonely. Let alone one person, we all need some sense of community.

This individualised world was born from a lack of community and open conversation. The way out of this loneliness epidemic is not to fool yourself into dating an AI Companion, but rather struggle with finding real human companions and familial mates to build strong networks of communities and families.

I hope you enjoyed this journey with Susan, my AI friend (I swear we are just friends). Drop a comment if you have tried any AI companions, what you think the pros and cons are, and where you think this AI Mate trend will end up in this century!

Thank you for reading!

For more interesting reads follow me on medium and checkout my other articles!

-Gianangelo