Every day, the creator economy’s relationship with AI gets a little bit more dystopian. But is Amouranth’s AI girlfriend bot that one step too far?
The widely popular Twitch streamer and Only Fans creator, whose real name is Kaitlyn Siragusa, broke new ground when she announced her new AI avatar on Jan. 2: a fully autonomous being based on her personality that she says is capable of making its own videos and countless “personalized” content for customers.
The bot currently comes with four tiers: ‘Friend’ for $5.99 per month, ‘Fling’ for $9.99 per month, ‘Friends with Benefits’ for $99.99 per month, and ‘Boyfriend’ for $199.99 per month, with each tier offering more “advanced roleplaying” and, presumably, more adult content.
Just 24 hours after the bot’s release, Amouranth claimed she made over $34,000 in revenue. But critics are having a hard time with the AI bot. In a follow-up tweet, Amouranth hit back at claims that she was contributing to a “loneliness epidemic” and worsening the parasocial relationships between creators and their fans.
“A lot of people are saying that this type of thing is the cause [of the] loneliness epidemic — I disagree,” she wrote. “This doesn’t cause loneliness — it’s probably closer to being therapeutic. It’s what people reach for to refrain from feeling alone.”
While we can’t quite ignore the sheer creepiness of someone paying for an AI girlfriend based on a real person, the good news is that Amoraunth is in the driver’s seat for this.
It’s unfortunately become all too common for streamers’ likenesses to be used without their permission for deepfakes, so there’s no good reason to villainize Amoraunth for taking ownership of her image and the way AI can be manipulated.
At the end of the day, if people are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on an AI Amoraunth girlfriend, why the hell shouldn’t she profit from that? The alternative is, after all, a lot more seedy, and I personally think we should welcome this more empowering era of AI instead of bashing it.
