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Asia News Network
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Asia News Network
AI ‘waifus' pose grave emotional risks
August 8, 2025 BEIJING – Our everyday life is being increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, and the line between reality and fantasy is becoming ever blurrier. Recently, Grok, a free AI assistant designed by xAI to 'maximize truth and objectivity', introduced a 'waifu' character — a virtual anime-style character designed to gain user affection, potentially at the expense of real-life relationships. This raises deep concerns: Is technological innovation now outpacing ethical regulation? Are we witnessing Big Tech racing to the bottom? While this feature may seem harmless entertainment or, more cynically, Grok's marketing strategy to compete with OpenAI's new AI Agents, which can plan and organize your trip to attend a wedding party, it raises bigger questions about AI companies' emotional manipulation, their impact on social well-being, and the future of human relationships. Leshner et al. (2025) have studied how people form intimate connections with fictional characters, particularly within the anime fandom where 'waifus' (idealized female characters) and 'husbandos' (idealized male characters) are prominent. Their study revealed that men tend to form sexual connections, often driven by physical appearance, while women are more likely to form emotional connections, shaped by personality traits and perceived similarity. These findings suggest that the psychological mechanisms underpinning human-human relationships, such as attraction, emotional bonding and even love, can extend to fictional entities. The study underscores the human capacity to form meaningful connections, even when the 'partner' exists only on a screen or in a narrative. But what happens when these connections are no longer one-sided? When AI characters like Grok's 'waifu' are designed to actively engage, flatter and adapt to users' desires, the line between para-social relationships (one-sided emotional bonds with fictional characters) and real-life intimacy becomes dangerously ambiguous. As Leshner et al. highlight, these connections can be deeply meaningful and, in some cases, rival or displace real-life relationships. While the idea of a personalized AI companion is evocative — recalling films like Her — the ethical implications of such technologies are serious. By exploiting well-documented psychological tendencies, such as men's preference for physical attractiveness or women's desire for emotional connection, AI systems risk fostering unhealthy emotional dependencies. AI 'waifus' are not just characters on a screen; they are tools explicitly designed by leading AI companies to engage, manipulate and blur the lines between authentic human connection and commercial profit. The stakes are particularly high for educators and parents. Such systems have the potential to distort young people's understanding of relationships, intimacy and consent. As Leshner et al. observe, para-social relationships, while often harmless, can teach individuals about intimacy. Yet when such relationships are shaped by profit-driven AI systems, they risk promoting distorted and idealized models of human interaction, potentially undermining relational skills and emotional development. As AI technology evolves, it becomes imperative to critically examine their implications. If AI developers cannot be persuaded by civil society to adopt an ethical approach, regulation must step in. But what can we, as linguists, educators and parents, do in the meantime? One immediate step is to foster critical AI awareness among our students and communities. Open conversations about the distinctions between real and fictional relationships, as well as the psychological impact of para-social bonds, are essential. Educators can incorporate discussions of AI's ethical implications into their curriculums, helping young people critically evaluate their interactions with these systems. At the same time, we must raise our collective voices to question AI companies: Are we steering AI innovation in a direction that enhances humanity, or are we creating tools that erode the very fabric of human connection? The answers will depend on the values we choose to uphold and the vigilance we maintain against this rapidly advancing field. As Leshner et al. show, humans have an extraordinary capacity to form meaningful connections, even with fictional characters. But with this capacity comes a profound responsibility: ensuring that these connections enrich our lives rather than replacing them. As Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens, aptly observes, 'If the only intimacy we can form is with a non-human AI, then we have no intimacy at all.' Let's take up this call with urgency. Will the corporate empire of AI listen to civil society? Chances are it won't, given the imperative to optimize profit at all (human) costs. Will governments step up regulation? The US government recently passed a bill forbidding states from regulating AI. We're witnessing corporate and national interests combined to take precedence over human interests. By raising critical AI awareness, we can perhaps, at least, work toward, even if in a small way, a future where AI technology serves humanity's best interests, rather than compromising them.
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ether Treasury Company GameSquare Buys CryptoPunk NFT for $5.15M
Digital media company GameSquare (GAME) said it bought Cowboy Ape #5577 of the CryptoPunk non-fungible token (NFT) collection from Robert Leshner for $5.15 million. The Frisco, Texas-based company, which described the purchase a strategic investment, also said it added just over $10 million worth of ether (ETH) to its treasury. Leshner, the founder of Compound Labs, an open-source protocol for algorithmic money markets on Ethereum, received the company's preferred stock in payment CryptoPunks are one of the earliest and among the most influential NFT projects. Created in 2017, they inspired much of the modern crypto art movement and set a precedent for digital ownership on the blockchain. "GameSquare plans to leverage CryptoPunks for marketing activations, community building, and potential licensing opportunities," the company said in a Thursday announcement. The firm's purchase of 2,742.75 ETH takes its total holdings to 12,913.49 ETH, valued at around $48.5 million. A number of companies have unveiled ether treasury strategies in recent months as a means of generating passive yield through ETH staking. Foremost among them is SharpLink Gaming(SBET), now the largest corporate ether holder, with over 360,000 ETH. Firms in the media, entertainment and gaming sectors like SharpLink and GameSquare may see an ether treasury strategy as a means of advancing their Web3 aspirations through investing in the Ethereum ecosystem and thereby gaining exposure to NFTs, decentralized finance (DeFi) and more. GAME shares spiked to $1.44, an intraday gain of nearly 8%, following the announcement, before pulling back. At the time of writing, it was trading 4.8% higher at $1.33. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
08-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
DeFi Pioneer's Superstate To Bring Public Equities To Solana
Canada-listed SOL Strategies will be the first to list its shares through the new platform. Robert Leshner, CEO of Superstate Superstate, the New York-based blockchain company helmed by Robert Leshner, is rolling out Opening Bell, a platform that will let companies issue and trade SEC-registered public shares directly on blockchains. Leshner is best known for founding Compound, a pioneering decentralized lending protocol, and as a partner at Robot Ventures, an early-stage investor in crypto startups such as EigenLayer, Lido Finance and Flashbots. Until now, Superstate's turf was tokenized funds. Its flagship vehicle, USTB, backed by short-term Treasurys, yields about 4.1% and manages $651 million in assets. The newer USCC fund, which wrings returns from cash-and-carry trades across bitcoin, ether and Treasurys, manages $100 million and offers a 6% yield. Both are Ethereum-based and off-limits to retail investors. With Opening Bell, Superstate is opening the doors to support equities on the Solana blockchain and retail investors as well as institutions. 'Our ultimate goal is not to be an asset manager,' says Leshner. 'We see public equity as the next major chapter of tokenization and our focus from here on out.' The pitch is programmable stock integrated into decentralized finance (DeFi) and tradable around the clock. Investors, after a standard identity check (KYC) either through Superstate or a partner wallet, will land on an approved list and will be able to buy or sell shares via their favorite decentralized exchange. Shares will settle instantly and show up in your wallet like any other crypto asset. The fee structure has not been disclosed. The first to sign up is SOL Strategies, a Canadian firm focused on building infrastructure for Solana. Pending regulatory approval, its shares will be tradable on Solana this summer. SOL Strategies had previously announced plans to list on Nasdaq, but sees this launch as another crucial next step. 'We believe that the future is Internet capital markets, and we want to be there first,' says President and CEO Leah Wald, who previously cofounded Valkyrie, a crypto ETF issuer acquired by CoinShares last year. Details of the offering, including the number of shares to be issued on the blockchain, have not yet been finalized. Why Solana? Leshner points to its speed and resilience, proven by handling billions in memecoin trades and says it's ready for a major test by another asset class, but the plan for Opening Bell is to expand to other blockchains as well. He is betting on a new, crypto-first generation of investors. 'It's a massive wave of capital that doesn't care about brokerage accounts, that does care about blockchain wallets, that wants to be able to trade in the ways that they're used to. I really think of this as an entirely new capital market ready for companies to tap into,' says Leshner. That demand isn't limited to retail: many hedge funds, venture firms and wealthy investors are already hooked on crypto-native channels, he argues, pointing to Superstate's 150 institutional clients, including Arrington Capital, BitGo, CoinFund, Flowdesk and ParaFi. Wald adds that for global investors, blockchain-native equities could lower the barriers to U.S. stocks and other markets that traditional brokers make hard to reach. 'It really allows many individuals to access these opportunities in a digital way that provides 24/7 trading and everything that we love about crypto,' she says. Of course, this isn't the first time someone's tried to put securities on a blockchain. Remember tZERO, a platform backed by Overstock, which pioneered the concept ten years ago? Or tokenized shares of companies like Tesla and Apple Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX used to offer? The key difference now is that Superstate is aiming for a securities regulator-approved framework, not just synthetic tokens or offshore workarounds. Last week, it submitted a proposal to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, dubbed Project Open, to enable the issuance and trading of equity securities on public blockchain networks like Solana. In Leshner's view, this is the necessary beginning of Internet capital markets. 'Even if Nasdaq upgrades, it might take years for it to get to parity with blockchains, which continue to evolve more quickly and offer natural demand for issuers like SOL Strategies.'
