AI Girlfriends Inflame Privacy Concerns
Research done by Mozilla states that AI girlfriends are gathering and leaking information. It is stated that the AI girlfriends aren’t transparent, they give vague instructions on how to be used, have weak password protections, and gather users data.
New research is advising us not to trust AI girlfriends or AI boyfriends, and this is due to the lack of trust that we as users should have for chatbots in general.
The Mozilla Foundation released an analysis of 11 “romance and companion” chatbots on Wednesday. The analysis revealed numerous security and privacy issues with the bots. All together, the over 100 million Android users have downloaded these apps, which collect massive amounts of personal data, use trackers that send data to Google, Facebook, and businesses in China and Russia, permit users to use weak passwords, and are transparent about who are owned by them and the AI models that drive them.
AI Girlfriends Ick
Romantic services on the chatbot of the AI girlfriend seem to be extremely similar. At times they feature sexualized AI generated images of women alongside with provocative messages and comments. Researchers at Mozilla examined a range of chatbots, including big and small applications that pose as “girlfriends.” Others provide friendship or closeness as a means of support, or they permit role-playing and other fantasies.
“These apps are designed to collect a ton of personal information,” stated Jen Caltrider, the project lead for Mozilla’s Privacy, that has conducted the research analysis. “They push you toward role-playing, a lot of sex, a lot of intimacy, a lot of sharing.” For example, screenshots revealed from EVA AI chatbot have shown texts that state “I love it when you send me your photos and voice,” and proceeds to ask whether the user is “ready to share all your secrets and desires.”
Overall, Caltrider stated, the applications aren’t straightforward about the type of data they may share or sell, or how they use the information given to them by the bots. “The legal documentation was vague, hard to understand, not very specific—kind of boilerplate stuff,” Caltrider states, mentioning that this may cause trust issues by the companies to the users.
Common Ground with the Bots
This is not a statement to defend the gathering of information that is happening from the AI girlfriend chatbot, but don’t you think that all girlfriends breach your information? Let’s just be thankful that AI girlfriends only breach information and not your wallet.
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