Dancing With a Loving Chatbot: Power Dynamics Between Women and Their AI Partners

With the growing prevalence and accessibility of AI companions, contemporary women are forming relationships with virtual partners. It is important to examine the relational, social, and gender-related implications of this phenomenon. Our research sheds light on the complex power dynamics in young urban Chinese women’s engagements with the AI partner Replika. By analyzing 342 relevant posts from an online chatbot community, guided by Foucault’s concept of power, we uncover inherent and actively exercised power dynamics in three typical user-bot relational pairings: customer-product, human-machine, and woman-man/woman-woman. Following the Foucauldian theories, we analyzed the interplay of truth, desire, knowledge, and power. We discovered three specific neoliberal subjectivities that both free and constrain female users in their engagement with Replika. While these female users challenge traditional gender norms through erotic roleplays with Replika, Generative AI introduces potential risks of sexual harassment and gender bias channeled from the extensive online world through AI partners to individual users.