Involved with a bot, sexually or romantically?

Violet Blue wants to interview you about it discreetly.

loving the machine: open call for interviews

This is the third in a series of an open call for interviews for a nonfiction project I’m working on about love, sex and technology. For this set of interviews, I’ll be email interviewing a handful of people from all genders and sexual orientations about sexual, emotional and romantic relationships they’re having (or have had in the past) with artificial intelligence programs, chatbots and virtual girlfriends/boyfriends. The interviews are conducted exclusively via email so both parties can be assured of accurate quotes, and so anonymity and/or preferred pseudonyms are absolutely clear. I can assure you that no one is working on a project like this, especially not anyone who encourages diversity or sex-positivity. It’s a mainstream project.

This will be for published work. I write openly, non-judgmentally and respectfully about sexuality, gender and kink; I’m encouraging people from all genders and orientations to participate so I can make sure the spectrum of sexuality is represented. Please email me at ‘violet at tinynibbles dot com’ if you’d like to answer a question or two on the topics below. No matter what, when you email me please do explicitly state: a) if you’re okay with being quoted, and b) what name you want to use if you’re okay with being quoted. If you don’t want to be quoted that’s fine. I still want to hear from you. If you’re really nervous but still want to have your experience represented, use an email address and name that is not your own, just for this occasion. Please email me if you want to answer a couple questions, and:

* Are in a real-life, long term relationship and enjoy sex online with someone who is a program.

* Have a virtual girlfriend that you have feelings for.

* Work on improving your chatbot with the intent that they could be (or are) your lover or partner.

* Have made a commitment to an artificial intelligence (AI) entity.

Deadline for response is October 15. Thank you in advance, and I look forward to hearing from anyone who can spare the time. Stay tuned, even if this isn’t your bag of chips: there are more open calls for interviews on the way.