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AI girlfriends are toxic and use you for data, privacy experts warn

Romantic chatbots foster a toxic dynamic and relentlessly pry user data, The Mozilla Foundation found.

There's a potentially dangerous reality looming beneath the veneer of AI romance, according to a new Valentine's Day-themed study, which concluded that the chatbots can be a privacy nightmare. "Although they are marketed as something that will enhance your mental health and well-being," researcher Misha Rykov wrote of romantic chatbots in the report, "they specialize in delivering dependency, loneliness, and toxicity, all while prying as much data as possible from you." Furthermore, the privacy policy for CrushOn.AI states it can collect information on users' sexual health, prescription meds, and gender-affirming care, per the Mozilla Foundation.

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