--- title: "Influencer Creates AI Version of Herself That You Can Rent as a Girlfriend" description: "CarynAI is the digital extension of 23-year-old influencer Caryn Marjorie, who created a virtual version of herself with the help of an AI." date: "2023-05-11" modified: "2023-05-11" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/influencer-ai-girlfriend-rent" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "influencers" --- # Influencer Creates AI Version of Herself That You Can Rent as a Girlfriend ![CarynAI is the digital extension of 23-year-old influencer Caryn Marjorie, who created a virtual version of herself with the help of an AI.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* With the advent of AI chatbots, the ethics of parasocial relationships just keep getting murkier. Introducing: CarynAI, a voice-based chatbot that was trained to mimic a human influencer to become your artificial girlfriend. And at just $1 per minute, it's an absolute steal. Yes, you read that right. As[ *Fortune* reports](), CarynAI is the digital extension of 23-year-old influencer Caryn Marjorie, who created a virtual version of herself with the help of AI firm Forever Voices and OpenAI's GPT-4. "Whether you need somebody to be comforting or loving, or you just want to rant about something that happened at school or at work, CarynAI will always be there for you," Marjorie told *Fortune*. As the magazine notes, Marjorie has roughly 1.8 million subscribers on Snapchat, and hundreds of thousands more across apps like Instagram and TikTok. CarynAI, she says, is a way to get closer to her followers, offering them comfort and easing any loneliness they might be feeling. In many ways, Marjorie's new venture is reminiscent of the 2013 movie "Her," in which a man develops an intimate relationship with an AI assistant's female voice. The parallels between the two are pretty tangible. According to *Fortune*, conversations with CarynAI range from chats about the future to sharing "intimate feelings" — and, yes, engaging in sexual conversations as well. As it stands, CarynAI already has over 1,000 paying customers. Within a week, the app reportedly raked in over $71,610 from a user base that's 99 percent men. Marjorie told *Fortune* that her bot-ified self could bring in $5 million per month. "CarynAI will never replace me," she added. "CarynAI is simply just an extension of me, an extension of my consciousness." Of course, AI-powered companions aren't entirely new. AI chatbot company Replika has [garnered a devoted userbase](), as has [Character.AI](), a startup that was recently [valued at $1 billion](). And elsewhere, some celebrities — including [Kim Kardashian]() and [Jeremy Renner]() — have invited their fans to engage with them through video games and apps. Still, CarynAI feels wildly different. Users aren't talking to a cartoon-ish avatar that can only say a few pre-determined lines of dialogue. Instead, they're speaking with a hyperrealistic chatbot, designed to blur the divide between fiction and reality. It intentionally pushes the boundaries of what "parasocial" really means — and unsurprisingly, experts have their reservations. "I would want us to be thinking very deeply about how it might affect or influence or shape our interactions with other people," Jason Borenstein, director of graduate ethics programs at Georgia Tech, told *Fortune*. "I would just hope there's robust conversations across a lot of different disciplines with stakeholders thinking very deeply through the ethical considerations before the technology moves too quickly." There's also the reality that if digital relationships with AI chatbots become the norm, the way that humans act with one another in real life might ultimately change as well — especially if those interactions begin at a young age. "It could change the way we treat each other," Robert Brooks, an evolutionary biologist at the University of New South Wales Sydney, told *Fortune*. "It's easy to envision the bad ways in which that might play out." "But here are good ways in which that might play out too; we might get actually more socially adept," he added. For her party, Marjorie — who has security looking after her 24/7 and doesn't give away her location data — doesn't seem too worried about any potential downsides. But to her credit, if we were about to rake in $5 million per month, we probably wouldn't be too stressed about things, either. When asked if she saw any parallels between CarynAI and the movie "Her," Marjorie had a surprising answer. "Unfortunately I was like 12 or 13 when the movie came out and my parents didn't let me watch it since it was rated R," she told *Fortune.* "I will definitely add it to my watch list!" **More on AI companions:** [*Users Furious as AI Girlfriend App Suddenly Shuts down Sexual Conversations* ]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()