Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Instagram, Sex and Relationships, Social Media, Technology, US News, Valentine's Day
An influencer has bagged as many as 500 Valentine's Day dates from men - but she's not even real.
The most romantic day of the year has crept up on us. The big day is happening tomorrow (February 14), so hopefully you've secured a romantic date with a certain someone or at least a Galentine's date by now.
Yet one lucky lady, Aika Kittie, has been flooded with date proposals, from the lavishly ludicrous like trips abroad to luxury shopping trips and a night of fine dining, despite her rather unique predicament.
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Ms Kittie has almost 100,000 followers on Instagram and rakes in more than £5,000 (around $6,200) per month, and appears on the surface to be a typical young content creater, even posing in pics with pals, hanging out by poolsides, showing her 'try-on hauls' and taking selfies in her bedroom.
However, hundreds of men might be heartbroken to learn Ms Kittie doesn't actually exist in the flesh.
In actuality, she's an online influencer made entirely by artificial intelligence and exists on the subscription platform, Fanvue.
This platform and others like it work similarly to websites or apps that allow users to chat to virtual humanoid companions.
AI is used to hold conversations, snap images, and even send voice notes.
Fanvue has now revealed Ms Kittie has received more than 500 Valentine's Day proposals to spend some time with her on the most romantic day of the year.
The staggering number took the team 'hours' to sift through with some heart-racing romantic offers landing in Ms Kittie's DMs in the past few weeks.
Ms Kittie's creator commented: "Aika has received Valentine’s proposals to take her shopping at Louis Vuitton, dinner at one of London’s top restaurants and even a romantic trip to Paris.
"In the past Aika has had offers to fly on a private jet to Dubai, and countless other holiday invites. She’s built such a loyal fanbase on platforms like Fanvue and Instagram through sharing her digital journey that so many fans want to meet her.”
While she won't be able to accept the in-person dates, for obvious reasons, her creator believes she'll still be spoilt rotten with hundreds of her subscribers and loyal fans expected to log on and send her their love.
The creator expects February 14 will be her busiest day of the year, with plans to work 18 hours with fans and 'fixing lonely hearts'.
AI bots and 'parasocial relationships' have rocketed online, as the US entered what surgeon general Vivek Murthy described as a loneliness epidemic. Indeed, a Harvard survey found that 21 percent of adults reporting they had serious feelings of loneliness.
Murthy said a huge influx of Americans were reporting that they 'felt isolated, invisible, and insignificant', while the effects of social isolation impacting health and mortality in the same way as smoking cigarettes every day.
Fanvue say para-social relationships with digital creators will become more and more common as people turn to the digital world for compansionship.
A Fanvue spokesperson added: “AI Influencers are able to build massive fanbases online, sharing their lives and journey through content - just like a human influencer would.
"Our chat service, which is available to all creators on our platform, is incredibly popular and we’re expecting a massive spike in user traffic as singletons choose to spend their Valentine’s online, rather than on a real world date.”
