The cursed world of AI kiss and hug apps

Doomscroll on TikTok long enough, and you’ll come across an ad for AI video apps. In one ad, a stereotypically nerdy girl puckishly smirks as she uploads a picture of herself and her much more handsome crush. Boom – suddenly, thanks to AI, they’re smooching. In another, I’m shown a woman in a blouse and jeans. Do I want to know what she looks like in a blue bikini? Psst. There’s an app for that. The ad then shows me the woman in said blue bikini.
These apps aren’t peddling the digital nudes many people associate with AI deepfakes, which are proliferating in their own right on app stores. Slapped together by opportunistic developers and sprinkled with subscription fees and microtransactions, they’re all pitching tools to help you make benign fantasies a bit more tangible – but the results feel more cursed than magical.
AI video ads link out to apps with titles like Boom.AI, VideoAI, and DreamVid, made by companies you’ve probably never heard of – a short perusal of Apple’s App Store brings up roughly two dozen options. Despite their titillating promotional material, they feature plenty of innocuous video templates. By uploading one or two photos and hitting a “generate” button …
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