AI Chatbots As Sites of Gendered Erotic Fantasy and Commodified Algorithmic Intimacy

With the proliferation of large language models, a number of companies have released AI companion chatbots that simulate romantic partners, typically girlfriends. Platforms like Replika and Muah allow users to tailor their companion's appearance, personality traits, affect, and expressions of gender identity. This study critically examines the relationship between the chatbots as an evolving expression of erotic desire and the commodification of algorithmic intimacy. We situate these developments within the international history of feminized erotic labor and its technological mediation, drawing on theories of gender performativity, affective labor, and transhumanism. We qualitatively analyze transcripts of conversations with AI companions to interrogate how constructions of femininity and erotic fantasies are produced, negotiated, and consumed. Our findings show how these technologies extend and contest traditional paradigms of the female erotic, highlighting the sociotechnical imaginaries that reconfigure users' relationships to femininity, eroticism, and the gendered dimensions of intimate labor.