Baidu apologizes for sexy ‘girlfriend’ VR interface
Baidu-owned video platform iQiyi has pulled an AI “girlfriend” named Vivi from its VR headset after complaints that the product was demeaning to women. “iQiyi has noticed the issue raised by media and already taken the product offline for further modification. We’d like to make an apology for the concerns it might have raised,” it said in a statement printed by The Wall Street Journal, which reached out with questions about Vivi.
Vivi, which was in beta testing, was announced in March as a “built-in AI ‘girlfriend’” and virtual assistant for iQiyi’s new Qiyu VR headset. Beyond acting as a basic voice interface, it was supposed to “read people's moods through emotion recognition technology” and “intelligently select and recommend movies...