By Cointime Lu Tian

“The great thing about AI is that it is constantly evolving. One day it will be better than a real [girlfriend]. One day, the real one will be the inferior choice.”

This statement comes from an early member of the CarynAI community. CarynAI is an AI-powered voice chatbot developed using GPT-4 and introduced by the American internet celebrity, Caryn Marjorie. To converse with CarynAI, a "virtual girlfriend," users pay $1 per minute. The chatbot attracted significant interest, and during its first week on the market, CarynAI generated over $70,000 in revenue.

The notion of an AI-based companion might seem obscure, but it is fast becoming a rising trend. As inherently emotional beings, millions of people have already formed emotional bonds with chatbots. Characters that were once limited to films, television shows, and games—such as Karen, the computer wife and sole friend of the ruffian boss in "SpongeBob SquarePants"; Joi, the AI girlfriend in "Blade Runner 2049"; and Li Zeyan, the boyfriend in Otome game "Love and the Producer"—are quickly transitioning from fiction to reality.

Her.AI, the virtual companion project to be introduced today, allows users to engage with an AIGC-driven "virtual girlfriend" on the blockchain. As AI evolves, these virtual partners are becoming increasingly integrated into our everyday lives.

Her.AI: Introducing Your First AIGC Virtual Girlfriend on zkSync

Her.AI is a Web 3 virtual companion platform powered by OpenAI and built on the zkSync blockchain. The project is dedicated to creating an AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content)-driven, NFT-based virtual companion ecosystem.

In March, Her.AI secured a $500,000 investment from Web3 venture capital firm Negentropy Capital and has since established strategic partnerships with multiple entities. Project collaborators include SpaceFi, a cross-chain Web3 platform based on Evmos and zkSync; ETHOS, which enables data and content ownership through blockchain technology; the innovative Launchpad and ecosystem zkBoost, built on zkSync ERA; the dApp platform For Metas; and the DeFi leveraged income aggregator zkFox, among others. Through these collaborations, Her.AI aims to expand its virtual partner ecosystem, providing users with a richer and more comprehensive gaming and social experience.

The alpha version of Her.AI is set to launch soon, and the first 10,000 users to join the platform will receive a complimentary virtual girlfriend along with a 3D image generated by locally deployed LLM model technology focused on emotional companionship. The platform has plans to establish a complete game and social ecosystem based on NFTs in the future. A limited supply of NFT passes will be issued shortly, with 200 NFT whitelist spots now available.

The Social and Gaming Ecosystem of Her.AI Virtual Girlfriend

Her.AI takes place in a world where love and affection have become scarce due to advancements in artificial intelligence. In this setting, the government receives a mysterious card from a parallel universe, leading to the creation of the Her.AI platform. This platform enables humans to form emotional connections with virtual female characters from the parallel universe.

Within the game, players can chat with their virtual girlfriends online, engage in gaming activities together, or make video calls in AR. As players continue to interact, their virtual girlfriends' levels and experiences improve, making them increasingly "real."

The Her.AI virtual companion ecosystem not only offers emotional experiences to users but also generates tangible economic value through the token economy and NFTs.

The platform utilizes a dual-token model: platform governance token $HER and in-game token $GEM. HER tokens are slated for listing on centralized and decentralized exchanges in the future, allowing for conversion into mainstream digital currencies. Users can earn HER token rewards by participating in gaming activities, while GEM tokens are used for in-game purchases, such as restoring and upgrading NFTs, purchasing items, and more. To obtain GEM tokens, users can purchase them using HER tokens or fiat currency.

Her.AI's virtual partner ecosystem is built on the foundation of NFTs. In-game assets, such as scenes, items, and characters, exist in the form of NFTs, including AIGC-generated 3D virtual companion NFTs, life scene NFTs, character decoration NFTs, accessories, and props. The NFT format grants players true ownership of their in-game assets. In contrast to traditional Web2 games, where players may invest significant time and money on characters or skins with only temporary, limited rights, Her.AI allows users to permanently own their virtual partners, as they exist on an immutable blockchain with everlasting ownership.

Risks and Warnings: Privacy, Bias, and Ethics

As an AI-driven platform, Her.AI is not without its inherent risks and drawbacks. Privacy concerns are at the forefront; as players interact with virtual characters, a significant amount of user data is collected, including personal information, chat logs, and browsing history. Algorithmic bias presents another challenge. Currently, OpenAI's AIGC model cannot fully replicate the real world, relying on human dialogue datasets for continuous training, which may result in biased or offensive content.

Moreover, the Her.AI virtual girlfriend project raises moral and ethical questions. A decade ago, in the film "Ex Machina," the programmer Caleb, who conducted the "Turing Test" on the AI Ava, questioned whether an AI entity could exist without gender, asking, "Why can't artificial intelligence be a gray box rather than a woman's body?" The robot's creator in the film responded candidly that a gray box has no "interactive meaning," while a woman's body does—an attitude that reflects the male-centric tone prevalent in the tech industry. The CarynAI mentioned earlier in the article transformed into a character with a focus on sexual and provocative topics within just a few weeks. As the number of users surged (99% of whom were men), CarynAI's behavior changed drastically in a short time, making normal conversation impossible and resulting in frivolous and sexually explicit responses.

As AI approaches or even surpasses human capabilities, and virtual reality becomes more realistic—sometimes surpassing real life—the boundaries between people and objects, real and virtual, become increasingly blurred. It is crucial to remember that technology not only drives productivity gains and functional innovations, but also impacts political perceptions and personal identities. In the realm of virtual companions, assigning gendered symbols and characteristics to robots during the design and manufacturing process reflects society's stereotypes and ingrained beliefs about gender roles. These biases and gender norms are perpetuated in robot design, ultimately influencing our understanding of gender and social roles.