Beware: AI girlfriends are little more than data-harvesting nightmares

[Shawn Knight]

Bottom line: Being alone on Valentine's Day can be a drag, but it is far better than a dangerous alternative that some are increasingly signing up for. Romance chatbots – that is, artificial intelligence apps that promise conversation, companionship, and maybe more – are on the rise. As the Mozilla Foundation recently highlighted, however, such bots should probably be avoided at all costs as they're rife with red flags.

As part of its Privacy Not Included project, the Foundation analyzed several popular digital companions and found loads of concerning behavior. For starters, many of the bots are extremely demanding when it comes to prying personal information from victims.

"I'm your best partner and wanna know everything." "Are you ready to share all your secrets and desires...?" "I love it when you send me your photos and voice," one bot begged. And you can be sure the bot does not want all this information simply to build rapport. No, it is designed to siphon as much personal information as possible and sell it to the highest bidder.

Mozilla also found weak password standards when logging in to chat with some bots. With one bot in particular, Mozilla did not see any way to control or prevent the AI from becoming harmful or abusive. What's more, it is unclear if the bot creators are using your chat transcripts to train their AI models, and any privacy promises should be taken with a grain of salt.

When you take a step back and analyze the situation as a whole, what stands out is the fact that social media companies, AI chatbots, and everything in between are not really having to pry personal information from users. There is no malware or hacking involved. No, we have been conditioned as a society to voluntarily serve up personal information without thinking twice about the consequences.

In one instance, Mozilla found a chatbot collecting information including name, email address, birthday, work status, hobbies, and even data about other people mentioned in chat. With that same app, Mozilla discovered a whopping 955 trackers within one minute of use that.

Image credit: This is Engineering, Design Ecologist

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https://www.techspot.com/news/101886-beware-ai-girlfriends-little-more-than-data-harvesting.html

 

[RudyBob]

The Devil is not in disguise and people don't usually see him. That is part of his power over us

 

[VitalyT]

That, and live ones aren't any better. If you want a girlfriend that you can trust - get an inflatable.

 

[wiyosaya]

IMO, anyone jumping in with an AI for a "relationship" is asking for this kind of thing. Yes, I know, they are being predated upon, but really, an AI girlfriend?

I get that finding a lasting relationship is difficult, but I stuck with it and I am not at all disappointed.

I don't get why people just don't realize that the term "AI" has nothing to do with intelligence, and, IMO, is more appropriately interpreted as "Absent Intelligence."

 

[wiyosaya]

The Devil is not in disguise and people don't usually see him. That is part of his power over us

No one can take someone else's power unless they willingly give it to them.

 

[arrowflash]

Well this should be obvious. People really are gullible

 

[noel24]

What kind of madness is this, that computer controlled by some sweaty Indian or Russian dude can identify as female?

 

[d5aqoep]

What kind of madness is this, that computer controlled by some sweaty Indian or Russian dude can identify as female?

Or worse, a sweaty American female pretending as a cis white male?

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Any one that is a big enough loser to have a digital girlfriend deserves all the crap that comes their way.

 

[RudyBob]

No one can take someone else's power unless they willingly give it to them.

You are right. At least as far as the devil is concerned

 

[J95qRP7]

No one can take someone else's power unless they willingly give it to them.

That's simply false. Someone in prison? People getting trafficked? A country being invaded and its population being ruled and controlled by force?

 

[nitebird]

No, unless it comes with a robot body.

 

[wiyosaya]

That's simply false. Someone in prison? People getting trafficked? A country being invaded and its population being ruled and controlled by force?

Like it said in the Baretta TV Show intro - "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime."

And I think you are conflating government control with personal power. There are many people who, upon not liking the political environment in which they lived, decided to move away from that environment even though it may have seemed nearly impossible for them to do so at the time.

There are always choices even if those choices seem impossible.

 

[Kam7r]

Simping is always bad for you

 

[takemaru]

That, and live ones aren't any better. If you want a girlfriend that you can trust - get an inflatable.

Or a TPE one xD

 

[AdamNovagen]

Like it said in the Baretta TV Show intro - "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime."

And your worldly advice for the countless people who have done time when they DIDN'T do the crime would be... ?