The SexBots Are Already Here

Well, it turns out some people have already written sexbots for a profit motive - to steal your personal information.

According to a recent piece in the Guardian, Russian software developers recently unleashed a program called CyberLover, which roams chat rooms posing as flirtatious women, then duping users into giving them personal data—phone numbers, addresses, even sexy photos.

The author of the column on cybersex, remarks about the amazing repetitiveness of of most of it and wonders if most guys would notice or care if it really was a sexbot on the other end of the "conversation".

Still, the idea that a computer program could fool even the most desperate lover in cyber bed makes an online sex enthusiast wonder: is some cybersex so predictable that it could be done by a robot?

I’ll admit: some days I feel like a sexbot myself. Camping out for research in the AOL Big Flirt chat room, where online love is practiced 'Wam-bam-ty-mam!' style, it’s not hard to get cynical. After the third guy in an hour has asked “Do you swallow?” within moments of introducing himself, the repetitiveness of uninspired cybersex makes itself strangely clear. Descriptions of the same-sex acts with the same outcomes (“First I’d lick you, then I’d fuck you, then I’d cum all over your face”) pop up on the screen again and again. A girl can’t help but think: if cyberers are so uncreative, maybe they’d be happier with a machine.

Finally, she does a little research of her own, by using stock responses copied and pasted into a chat room to see if people would notice that she wasn't being "creative".

Still, inspired by my Russian brethren, I decided to head back into the AOL chat rooms and test out the idea myself. Armed with only 30 responses (see below), ranging from the harmless (“Not much. Just horny”) to the hardcore (“I’d love to take your cock deep in my throat”), I stuck it out for ten conversations with ostensibly male counterparts whose screen names alone—HardCock, BigDick4U—were enough to make me consider turning in my human skin and resigning myself to life as a computer. Each of the conversations lasted at least half an hour. Most got pretty down and dirty into the cybersex act—though some guys got excited, orgasmed early, and disappeared half way through. Classy.

Unsurprisingly, I found my lines worked 95% of the time. “Mmm” and “Oh yeah” came in handy often, as did “I’d like that” and “I’m rubbing my pussy.” No one asked me, “Are you sure you’re not a sexbot?” In every conversation though, there was at least one moment when my lines just weren’t enough. One user asked me where in New York City I lived. Another asked me whether I’d ever taken it up the ass and what specifically I liked about it. A third wanted to move the chat to webcam, and I had to explain multiple times why I wanted to stay put—without sounding like a broken record.

Her list of 30 "stock" phrases could keep most of her "partners" busy for up to 30 minutes! One scary thing about her list of phrases is that it really doesn't include much hardcore in it.

When I did escorting, I definitely found myself using some of the same words and imagery again and again. I even found myself copying and pasting certain phrases I said into a file I kept of "good phrases". A particularly good turn of word or a phrase that struck me as particularly sexy would go into the file so I wouldn't forget them. Later, if I was feeling uninspired or at an impasse over what to say during a session, I'd glance through the file for ideas.

I also kept a file on most people I met, and not just clients, so I wouldn't forget who they were or why I knew them. Linden Labs even have a feature for this, the 'notes' tab of a profile - a place to put comments and notes about a person. When glancing down your list of friends, it is nice to be able to look someplace and remember why they are on the list. Those files I made, in the case of clients, also recorded their particular kinks and which phrases seemed to turn them on and which ones didn't.

Lillie comments on a different column by the same author that also speaks about the repetitiveness of cybersex. She hints that a good story is coming. I can't wait.