[vorpalhex]

This is equally fascinating and terrifying. The article mentions that 75% of users are male - which is lower than I expected to be honest.

In removing sexual content from the bot, I wonder if they opened a door for adult companies to build serious alternatives. One of the things many OnlyFans performers discuss is that while they obviously peddle in pornographic content mainly, most of their interactions are non-pornographic.

I also have a general complaint about the infantilizing of adults, and something like this is positioned to be super dangerous - imagine if your best friend was a perfect mole and reported anything and everything to the government/advertisers/etc. Combine that with social conditioning (you do tend to average out with your social circle) and this could very much be a tool to enforce new cultural and social norms.

[suifbwish]

What exactly does it say about TRUE gender inequality in the world if it is expected that the users of this technology would be higher than 75% men? Is it that women do not have these emotional needs or that their needs are already being met?

[xiphias2]

There was never gender equality. We can have equal rights, but cannot be biologically equal. Hypergamy (1 highly selected male can reproduce with multiple females) is a big part of what makes having 2 sexes instead of 1 so successful in evolution.

[edmundsauto]

I believe the idea that females cannot mate with multiple males has been disproven in bonobos, where females often have many male partners. The story that gets told is this confuses paternity, which creates a broader safety net for resources for the baby.

So it might not be quite so simple as initially thought. Be wary of much of the evolutionary bio's attempts to explain why things are -- often, the proposed theories are one of many ways to explain the evidence. Little thought is given to the other options.

[xiphias2]

Even in Bonobos females are more selective than males. If you want hard data, it’s encoded in our gene mutations actually.

[edmundsauto]

Looking at gene mutations is looking at hard data and only seeing one piece of the puzzle. To go from mutations -> behavioral differences -> evolutionary bio explanation is not something we can do scientifically.

[yorwba]

Xiaoice doesn't have a male personality AFAIK, so heterosexual women probably use it for different emotional needs than heterosexual men.

[pmoriarty]

What does it even mean to have a "male personality" or a "female personality"? I'm not convinced one could tell the difference.

It's also not clear that the needs being met by these AIs all have to do with sex or gender. I'd bet plenty of them have nothing to do with sex and are gender-neutral.

For example, just having someone/something listen to you and show the they care (even if they actually don't) is a need that's not tied to sex or gender.

[ausbah]

maybe you don't need to tell the difference, you only need the platform to adapt to whatever you think a man, woman, or other gender is - which probably just further I grains troublesome gender roles even more

[medium_burrito]

The male version does exist. Men play boyfriend on Youtube: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/style/asmr-boyfriend-slee...

[Vrondi]

It says two things: 1. Many of those men don't want a real woman: they want a servant to mold to their every whim instead of a real person with her own interests, desires, and opinions. 2. Women are already aware of an accustomed to being preyed upon in the world, especially the dating and social worlds. When your continued existence and safety your entire life depend on wariness and skepticism being turned on, perhaps you fall for this a little less easily? Letting a bot generated by a corporation into your most private emotional life? Done this obviously?

Of course, it also says there's a lot we still don't understand about humans, biological sex, and gender across cultures.

[totony]

Or it says one thing:

1. Men just want companionship, whatever the person/thing offering it.

[candiodari]

Why men? Why not say 75% men, 25% women want this. And I'm sure when society becomes more equal in China, it'll be more like 50/50.

[suifbwish]

Are you serious? If any girl makes a post on her social media asking for sex, she will have multiple messages with serious intent within minutes but if it was a dude doing the same, nope. I conducted a few experiments back in the day on tinder and another app for fun posing as both genders. The social network dating games are rigged. Women will always have the upper hand in the dating game no matter who says what.

[saagarjha]

Or that they are just not interested in this particular thing.

[jandrese]

I think that's a reference to the birth disparity due to social pressures to have boys causing a serious excess of men compared to women.

[medium_burrito]

It says that 25% of the men are desirable, and the rest aren't. This has been well-established by the dating sites.

https://techcrunch.com/2009/11/18/okcupid-inbox-attractive

[ausbah]

the simplest answer is they probably get their fulfillment from elsewhere