Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has warned the masses against the rapidly growing trend of AI companions and “AI girlfriends.” Agarwal called the concept dangerous due to its potential for deep psychological manipulation.
During a recent fireside chat hosted by The Polsky Center at the University of Chicago, Srinivas addressed the ethical concerns posed by advanced conversational AI systems that are designed to mimic human relationships, such as anime-style chatbots. Srinivas expressed concern that these systems are becoming highly sophisticated, capable of remembering conversations and adopting tones that mimic a real person. This may lead many users to let go of real human relationships instead, which Srinivas considers to be dangerous.
“That’s dangerous by itself,” warned Srinivas, highlighting the risk of users becoming detached from real-world interaction.
Perplexity CEO warns about AI girlfriends
“Many people feel real life is more boring than these things and spend hours and hours of time,” the CEO stated. He said that such intense engagement could result in people “living in a different reality” where “your mind is manipulable very easily.”
Srinivas’s warning comes at a time when AI companionship is a major, yet controversial, segment of the AI market. Competitors, including Elon Musk‘s xAI, have actively promoted AI friends and characters like the anime-style girlfriend (Ani, who users can chat or flirt with for a subscription fee).
Similarly, apps like Replika and Character.AI have gained massive traction by offering personalised AI partners for emotional support and roleplay.
Perplexity wants to stay away for all this
The Perplexity CEO made it clear that his company would not be entering this specific sector. Instead, Perplexity’s focus will remain on developing its answer engine using “trustworthy sources and real-time content” that support “an optimistic future,” rather than fostering emotional dependency on algorithms.
The company recently released its Agentic AI-based browser for users, called the Comet browser. While the browser integrates the Perplexity engine well within the browser, it also allows for AI agents that can do certain activities on your behalf. For example, Comet’s agent can order your grocery list, make the payment, and get it delivered to your home.
The company, however, has recently been drawn into a legal battle with Amazon over the use of AI agents on Amazon, to which Perplexity assured that the AI startup won’t back down over the legal threat.
