Virtual Reality Assistant Pulled For Being Too Flirty

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Baidu’s iQiyi has apologized and pulled their VR assistant after receiving complaints that its flirty personality helped objectify women, reducing them to nothing more than sexual objects.

The virtual-assistant avatar, Vivi, was meant to help users with tasks such as selecting and recommending films or answering simple questions related to the time and weather. Bizarrely however, Vivi could also “perform sexy dances with her enchanting figure” as one reviewer wrote on Zhihu, a Chinese alternative to Yahoo Answers. 

The voice-controlled assistant was first promoted as a ‘built-in girlfriend’ for a virtual reality headset and appeared in an office environment wearing a blouse and a short skirt. The VR girl was able to flirt with users and uttered phrases such as “You must love and adore me.” It also complimented users and acted coyly when asked about her age. After numerous complaints online over the amorous assistant, the Wall Street Journal contacted iQiyi asking if their avatar encouraged “a view of women as sexual objects in the workplace”.

The video platform, owned by China’s biggest internet search engine Baidu, took the avatar offline for “modification” and explained that Vivi was only in beta testing. The company also released a statement apologizing, saying: “iQiyi has noticed the issue raised by media and (has) already taken the product offline for further modification. We’d like to make an apology for the concerns it might have raised.”

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