One important story that I feel got lost during the end of 2025 is how white-presenting "18-year old" female "AI" companions are cosplayed by 30-year old fathers in Kenyan slums. At a huge cost to their mental health.

"My sole responsibility was to keep the conversation going, no matter what it did to me."

"The challenge went beyond just switching genders; I also had to perform across different sexual identities. Sometimes I was a straight woman flirting with men. Other times, I had to be a lesbian woman talking to other women about desires I'd never felt. In some conversations, I was expected to be a gay man discussing intimate details I knew nothing about. As a straight man, I had no roadmap for understanding what these users wanted or needed, but I had to fake it anyway. Bills don't wait for your comfort zone. The guilt ate at me every night."

I'll do a writeup for my newsletter, but here is Geoffrey's story in his own words (PDF):

https://data-workers.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/The-Emotional-Labor-Behind-AI-Intimacy-1.pdf