The technical practicability of AI sex chat has also improved considerably, but it is clouded by multi-dimensional controversies for its potential as an alternative to real partners. Statistics show that the size of the worldwide AI chat market reached 3.7 billion US dollars in 2023. Users on average interact 5.2 times a day (the average interaction frequency of the real partner is 3.1 times), and the cost of one conversation is 0.02 US dollars (the average cost of the real date is 52 US dollars). For instance, among the users of a specific virtual friend application “Gatebox” in Japan, 37% reported that the AI conversation met their emotional needs (based on a sample of 1,000 people), but only 12% believed that it could substitute human relationships completely. Technically, the correctness rate of natural language processing (NLP) models to sexual innuendo context is 89% (e.g., GPT-4) and the mistake of emotion recognition is ±0.3 (the human partners’ mistake is ±0.8), but they cannot simulate tactile feedback (e.g., the hugging pressure feeling mistake is 100%).
Physiological and psychological effects have deep differences. Neuroscientific data show that dopamine release due to AI sex chat is 68% as great as actual person interaction (data from fMRI scans), and that activity in the prefrontal cortex of long-term dependent subjects declines by 19% (no such decline exists in real-person interaction in the control group). A 2022 study at the University of California finds that those who overuse AI-generated conversations (with at least one hour of use every day) have a 34% decrease in satisfaction with real-life intimate relationships and a 28% increase in break-up rates. However, in some cases such as with persons with disabilities (23% of the users), 89% believe AI reduces the perception of loneliness (the tactile simulation device error is ±0.1N, and the cost is $599).
Legal and ethical risks cannot be ignored. The EU’s “Artificial Intelligence Act” requires AI-driven chat platforms to block children’s access at least 99.8% (actual is 92%), and the perpetrators will have to pay a penalty of 4% of their global revenue (example: Replika was penalized 18 million US dollars in 2023). Japan’s “AI Ethics Guidelines” demand “virtual companions” to sign informed consent forms (at a reading rate of only 31%), yet risk of data leakage still exists – hackers have stolen the chat history of 100,000 users on a given platform and the ransom required was as much as 230 bitcoins (which translates to roughly 6 million US dollars at the time).
Technical bottlenecks limit the ceiling of the experience. Currently, rendering 3D virtual avatures for AI-based chat (such as Unreal Engine 5) requires an RTX 4090 graphics card (24GB of video memory and a power consumption of 320W), and the mobile platform (iPhone 15 Pro) can render only at 720P (with an NPU load rate of 89%). Dynamic expression delay ≥0.5 seconds (real person interaction delay ≤0.05 seconds). Olfact and gutaste simulation remains to be released from the lab. To illustrate, Harvard University’s “Digital Odor Chip” in 2023 has an error rate of ±22% (at $1,200 per chip).
Market differentiation confirms the paradox of user behavior. Among the paying users (for a fee of $14.9 per month), 58% use real-life dating applications simultaneously, and only 14% refrain from socializing in real life. Business-scale programs such as “AI emotional therapists” have had a 42% increase in adoption in divorce mediation proceedings (with a retention rate of customers at 89%), but ethics committee evaluations report that the chance of their proposals being different from the law is 17% (e.g., a ±23% variance in algorithms used for property settlement).
The trend in the near future is to a hybrid model. Neuralink, a company making brain-computer interfaces, has tested and determined that it’s possible to reduce lag to 50ms (down from 200ms today) by synchronizing virtual haptic feedback for AI chat through EEG signals but it will be priced at an estimated $12,000. ABI predicts that by 2030, AI friends facilitating multimodal interaction (smell/touch/taste) will assist 29% of the lonely individuals but possibly spread the social alienation disorder (increasing by 12% annually).