Hot Girl Hotline is like ‘Dear Abby’ for the AI era

Women throughout history have always sought out relationship advice, whether from newspaper columnists like “Dear Abby,” letters to Cosmo, or just chatting with girlfriends. In the social media era, you can instead post anonymously on Reddit relationship forums or look to social media creators who discuss the topic.

Now, two sisters are launching a startup for young women, Hot Girl Hotline, which focuses on bringing AI into these conversation.

I know what you may be thinking: With all the advances in AI technology, founders are building something for women to talk about their dating woes? Well…yes!

The reality is that people have already been turning to large language models (LLMs) via apps like ChatGPT for this type of advice, and the team believes this type of activity should be handled more carefully.

Unfortunately, as we’ve seen, chatting with a general-purpose chatbot about personal topics can sometimes lead to disastrous effects — especially for those who were already mentally fragile. ChatGPT, for example, has faced a wave of lawsuits over its alleged manipulative conversation tactics that plaintiffs say contributed to negative mental health effects, and, in some cases, suicide.

The idea behind Hot Girl Hotline is to reach young women who are looking to have these sorts of private conversations while navigating dating life and relationships, but in a safer way.

“We’re not trying to be an AI companion,” explained Balia Mudgil, formerly a social media consultant, who co-founded the startup with her sister Sumrin (“Sumi”), who studied computer science at Stanford. “A companion is really going after solving loneliness, escapism, boredom — and you can rely on a lot of emotional dependency from that AI companion.”

“We believe the key to quality advice is not just knowing what to do next; it’s understanding why you’re doing it. So that’s a big piece of it,” added Sumi.

The app also personalizes its advice for each user to reflect their values, goals, identity, and tastes.