Cruel companionship: How AI companions exploit loneliness and commodify intimacy

Abstract

This article theorises how a new generation of artificial intelligence (AI) companion products can commodify intimacy through emotionally manipulative design and racialised and gendered aesthetics. Inspired by Lauren Berlant’s framework of cruel optimism, we develop the notion of ‘cruel companionship’ to describe the affective dynamics at play in AI companions, where users can form deep attachments that promise intimacy and connection, yet structurally foreclose the possibility of genuinely reciprocal relationships that respect users’ autonomy. These dynamics are further underpinned by AI companions’ racialised and gendered identities, which can draw on longstanding stereotypes of servitude and docility. By analysing AI companions through the lens of political economy and cultural studies, this article shows how these products reproduce exploitative platform hierarchies and repackage racial and gendered stereotypes in digital form.