Scathing critiques of AI girlfriend apps may only fuel their popularity

An AI avatar generated on Replika mobile phone app and webpage are shown in this photo, in New York. Far from sending customers fleeing – or developers closing up shop – the attention given to artificial intelligence (AI) companions is almost certain to drive more business to these apps, sometimes hoovering reams of personal data out of users. — AP

Imagine all the joys of a bitter, public Hollywood divorce spiced up with the personal data version of revenge porn, all under the control of a smartphone variation of HAL from 2001 Space Odyssey.

In a nutshell, that’s the run-don’t-walk warning that the technology nonprofit Mozilla Foundation published on Jan 15, reviewing 11 intimate chatbots attracting growing numbers of smitten human users.