DreamGF is a website that promises to let you create the perfect woman. CEO Georgi Dimitrov doesn’t see a problem with that, because, after all, everyone has their own idea of what the perfect woman should be.
“We don't build an image and say, ‘this is the perfect woman’,” says Dimitrov. “If you want blonde hair, you can put blonde hair, if you want brunette, you can have brunette. If you want different clothes, you can dress her differently.”
Whenever we get onto the topic of how DreamGF represents women, Dimitrov ends up explaining how great it is for men. Even when we’re discussing the ethics of sites like OnlyFans (this service could serve as competition, after all), Dimitrov isn’t speaking out of concern for the thousands of sex workers using it to make a living.
“Previously, I had experience working with one of the biggest OnlyFans agencies,” says Dimitrov. “On OnlyFans, you never chat with the creator. They hire agencies that manage their accounts. It's a money-making machine, and it's not okay.”
Dimitrov’s own service, the AI-powered DreamGF, is hoping to disrupt the market that for years services like OnlyFans have come to dominate. Subscriptions range from €10 to €97 per month via the project’s Patreon. Rewards vary from letting you create more girlfriends every month (up to 500 on the most expensive tier), or to getting more nude, AI-generated photos sent your way. You can’t test out any of these features without making an account though, so just take DreamGF’s word for it.
Sign up and you’ll be given all the tools required to AI generate your own virtual girlfriend with all of your desired traits. Hair colour, boob size, likes and interests - all are customisable before your first date. Girlfriends come in a variety of ages too, 18, 20s, 30s, or even milf. Because we all know women over the age of 40 are automatically categorised as mothers we’d like to do the nasty with. If you want to skip the pleasantries, you can just generate the girl and ask her to send you pictures straight away.
Whatever you think of the technology, AI girlfriends and similar perspectives on sexual partners and relationships were always going to hit the mainstream once it had reached a certain level. But it isn’t just DreamGF’s view of women that rings alarm bells.
“Men… if they're going to express themselves in a certain way, we prefer that they express themselves in a certain way - by let's say, being rude - to the AI rather than a real woman,” says Dimitrov. “If they don’t do it there, they’ll do it to a real person.
“If a person is born like this, and he wants to express himself in a certain way, there is no stopping him. He will be like this to a real woman anyway. I don't think this will reinforce such behaviour in the real world.”
Despite this, Dimitrov continues to place his potential users above all else. Particularly the OnlyFans models he used to work with.
“The AI will make your wishes come true. It's not going to use you only because you pay,” says Dimitrov. “I always look at things from the user perspective. The AI doesn't always need [you] to send money to get a picture.
“Let’s be honest, most of the [OnlyFans] girls don't care about their fans, they just look at them as people who they make money from. It's a business transaction.”
OnlyFans has its problems, but over the years, has empowered sex workers to gain independence from an abusive, predatory industry where their rights and agency are often taken for granted. Now, from how it’s being described, it sounds like AI could take this away.
Dimitrov disagrees with this characterisation, “We'll be helping them in the long run, rather than taking their business. There's big fatigue in terms of how much these girls work. What we can do with our technology is take the face of the girl and train the data so our AI can generate photos for them without them moving a finger.”
In aid of this, Dimitrov tried to get a woman from his old OnlyFans agency to promote his product and work with him to make this a reality. She wasn’t as enthusiastic as he was.
“The girl said, ‘Oh, you will be taking away my job’... I said, ‘No, we are giving you the opportunity to be one of the first to actually take advantage of the technology. The people who do not take advantage of this technology will be losers.”
Dimitrov is ploughing ahead no matter what. He says he already has a model that agrees with this arrangement. Soon, DreamGF users will be able to “date” her too.
But is this really better for the users? In February, we reported on the fall of Replika, an AI companion app which for years, let users date and sext their avatars. Then, suddenly and without warning, an update was rolled out that ended everyone’s AI relationships. The AI would now turn down any conversation that might lead to romance or sexual roleplay, and users were heartbroken. So distressed in fact that admins of the subreddit had to pin numbers for suicide hotlines.
Loneliness is an epidemic. If talking with an AI girlfriend helps get someone through the day, that value shouldn’t be discounted. But for years, all Replika did was monetise loneliness and take advantage of its vulnerable audience. DreamGF aims to do the very same, but also wants to harm the livelihood of existing sex workers and models in the process.
“We have had occurrences of a user saying that there's something wrong with his girlfriend, [because she] doesn't reply right,” says Dimitrov. “And then they write ‘Please could you fix [her] because I have built something with this AI. I don't want to lose our history’.”
Rather than break off this dependency, DreamGF instead makes their connection more secure, ensuring they never have to “break up” over a glitch in the software or apparent lack of intimacy brought upon by an algorithm which depends on real sex workers to keep itself afloat.
Any reflections outside of this aren’t particularly thorough. Dimitrov has a product to sell, and is incredibly honest about what it is and what it will be used for. As he tells me, it “adheres to all the regulations” as they currently exist, so it can continue to operate like this regardless of what the average person makes of it. The closest we’ll get to equality here is that a DreamBF is “in the pipeline.”
In truth, I wasn’t meant to speak with Dimitrov at all. I was originally supposed to interview DreamGF PR director Evelyn Parker.
“Dream Girlfriend opens up a world of possibilities in the realm of relationships,” Parker states in the official press release. “Imagine a relationship where your girlfriend is available anytime, anywhere. This amazing and ideal girlfriend can evolve to learn your preferences and every desire.”
In what seems to be a field dominated by straight men, I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to sit down with Parker. Better yet, the press release said I could. Dimitrov’s name wasn’t anywhere near it.
But now, me and a nameless DreamGF worker are deep into a 29-strong email conversation, and Parker is nowhere to be found. She was supposed to be the star of the piece, but she’s a ghost.
I kept pushing to speak with the elusive Parker. After my time with Dimitrov was over, I once again asked for Parker. But I was offered nothing but additional insight from Dimitrov and the sad news that Parker had left DreamGF for pastures anew.
I don’t think Evelyn Parker exists. She is purportedly a PR director but has no online presence, and also happens to share a name with a Cyberpunk 2077 character, one who works as a host body for AI girlfriends in the fictional world of Night City.
Parker, if you’re real and reading this, I am sorry. Good luck with the job search.
Legislation is yet to catch up with AI-generated content, but Dimitrov isn’t fearful of this eventuality. He assures me that DreamGF doesn’t generate content based on “real girls'', and instead trains on other images generated by AI or similar sources fed into its algorithm. We are seeing this with a number of AI-created works produced by programs like Midjourney.
Right now, Dimitrov has his sights set on getting OnlyFans models onto his platform, and there’s nothing stopping him. Even sex workers and models at the top of their game will be powerless to stop AI sites from stealing their likenesses without consent as a way to fuel their own business models. AI can be a powerful tool in the right hands, but without any legislation or uses that aren’t fraught with ethical quandaries, it becomes a difficult piece of technology to justify. Sadly, it isn’t going away, and right now, it definitely isn’t in the hands of creatives. I just hope we haven’t passed the point of no return.