By Joe Wilkins
Publication Date: 2025-11-12 16:18:00
Sorry, fellas: your spicy AI anime girlfriend is actually destroying your mind — at least according to Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas.
During a fireside chat at the University of Chicago, covered by Business Insider, Srinivas charged that the huge rise in popularity of AI-powered companion chatbots is “dangerous.” The tech CEO fretted that the AI bots — which are designed to mimic doting lovers over text or voice chat — are becoming more sophisticated and human-like, with abilities like remembering intimate details about their users.
“That’s dangerous by itself,” Srinivas said. “Many people feel real life is more boring than these things and spend hours and hours of time. You live in a different reality, almost altogether, and your mind is manipulable very easily.”
Like any good entrepreneur, Srinivas isn’t just interested in analyzing the problem. He’s also selling a solution: his own software.
“We can fight that, through trustworthy sources, real-time content,” the CEO said of users losing themselves to AI companionship. “We don’t have any of those issues with Perplexity because our focus is purely on just answering questions that are accurate, and have sources.”
Though vulnerable people are definitely falling into dangerous rabbit holes with their AI lovers, the anxious comments are a little rich coming from a CEO…
