cyber$exb0t: A Cybersex Voice Chat Experience
For our Hello Computer final, Zeyao Li and I created a voice chat bot that allows users to have cybersex with it. Users are able to choose from options of voices, ranging in pitch, to have cybersex with.
Roles:
Tina - Conceptualization, UX design, UI design, visual design, conversation design
Zeyao- Conceptualization, UX design, programming, conversation design
The idea came about when we were thinking about what it means to interact with a "genderless" voice bot, and what a genderless voice bot even sounds like. We wanted to see if it was possible to create a bot people can go on a date with that was truly genderless. Perhaps that would open people's minds about what gender they are open to dating?
After realizing that creating a truly genderless voice bot wasn't going to be possible within the limited time span we had, we changed our direction and decided to give users the option of choosing a voice they want to date, but the sexy interactions on screen will stay the same, despite the bot's voice. We are hoping that through this experience, people will be more open to having intimate interactions with different voices, thus different genders.
The art direction our UI is heavily inspired by my experience with cybersex on AOL Instant Messenger as a kiddo back in the early 2000’s. I wanted to bring that nostalgic feeling to our users. See mockups made on Figma below:
Our plan was to create a chat window on the right that displays the conversation between user and bot in real time, and an interactive window the left that allows users to perform tasks in order to please the bot (i.e. play with the bot’s nipples by toggling radio buttons).
We initially had the intentions of exploring intimacy with different genders through voice pitches. We chose cybersex as a device as it’s interaction, nostalgic, and can easily utilize voice tech capabilities. However, our demo has received feedback in regards to the interaction being humorous and not making the critical point about exploring intimacy with different genders.
Our intentions were not to make this a funny project, but we realize that the format chosen, utilizing synthesize voices from the computer, turns provocative chat logs that are seen in real cybersex chatrooms to something comical rather than sexy or arousing.
At an angle, the humorous effect can be seen as a tool for accessibility. Someone who typical does not think they would be open to getting intimate with a voice that is similar to their own could stumble upon a fun internet experience and accidentally amaze themselves in how they feel during these interactions with different voices.
But on the other hand, we realize this humorous effect can also come off as offensive, as intimacy and gender are complex topics.
Our aim to improve this project is to make sure our conversations with the bot are more thoughtful, serious, and dig deep into human intamacy. We want to go beyond the fun, sexy cybersex chat logs found on the internet. As we do want this project to be impactful, we will nix the screen interactions on the left, and focus the rest of our time before the winter show on building visceral conversation with the computer, to make our audience feel real intimacy and believe in this interaction, more than just getting a quick laugh from it.
We are currently continuing to improve our conversational content and flow, and will be updating this blog post with the final result!
See github repo: https://github.com/zeyaoli/cyber-exb0t
First demo: