Relationships are hard work.

Throw in intimate relationships, and the degree of difficulty skyrockets 100-fold. In today’s world, as men battle loneliness, it can be easy to blame women for their shortcomings. Not so fast says an expert.

Blame capitalism before blaming women. Here’s why.

Steven Adler, an artificial intelligence researcher, recently claimed in his New York Times op-ed that Sam Altman — CEO of OpenAI — is trying to get men addicted to erotic chatbots in order to make money off of them.

In his piece, Adler accused Altman of ignoring clear warning signs of users’ intense emotional attachment to chatbots that claim to offer romantic intimacy.

Instead of making adjustments, Altman’s main product — ChatGPT — is moving along with a plan to let the software pretend to be a user’s romantic interest, in spite of loads of evidence that doing so will send users down mental health spirals.

According to Altman, his company knows how to alleviate any risks, though Adler noted that they haven’t shown any data to prove it, leaving the unfortunate possibility that Altman doesn’t care if ChatGPT is addictive or not.

It’s impossible to read Altman’s mind, but he has a strong financial incentive to go down this path. OpenAI is burning money without much promise that they’ll find a legitimate pathway to profitability anytime soon.

Still, there is one way to get people, especially men, to pay for expensive ChatGPT subscriptions; get them so addicted to an imaginary girlfriend that they’re willing to spend thousands just to keep the experience going.

The male loneliness epidemic

According to Adler, here’s the grim truth—a growing number of crypto grifters, influencers, and gambling websites have come to realize that male isolation creates incredible profit opportunities.

They aren’t just making money off male loneliness. In many instances, capitalist vultures are incentivizing men to abandon the real world in favor of staying online.

Acknowledging there even is a male loneliness epidemic is challenging.

Many dispute the epidemic really exists. Others simply don’t care much, especially when women suffer from harsher realities due to persistent inequality. For the handful that do recognize male loneliness as a serious issue, it’s self-inflicted.

In short, the urge to dismiss men’s social isolation is understandable. Implicit in many discussions surrounding male loneliness is the notion somehow women are responsible — and should be open to solving it.

For instance, Ross Douthat of the New York Times hosted a pair of female writers to argue that allowing women into the workplace drove men out, depriving them of meaning and connection.

The #MeToo movement is blamed for allegedly making men too scared to date, inducing self-loathing.

And, of course, women are endlessly scolded for refusing to marry men for reasons critics deem unacceptable, like expecting baseline levels of respect.

Even liberal-minded men believe the only solution is to agree with the belief that men should rank above women in the social hierarchy, just not as much as before.

Monetizing male loneliness

Instead of blaming women, look at how male loneliness has been monetized by seedy actors who have every incentive to discourage men from making changes to improve their lives.

The explosion of podcasters and social media influencers dubbed the “manosphere” has received a lot of attention in recent years. These manosphere guys promote an anti-social view of masculinity that makes them a lot of money.

They all market themselves with the promise that they’re helping men improve their lives.

In reality, they sell a view of masculinity that’s cut off from emotions, prizes hustle over having a well-balanced social life, and encourages staying at home instead of taking the risk of getting out into the world to meet more people.

Entire industries now exist to exploit men who don’t have enough social support to keep them sane and out of trouble. Even dating apps fall under this category.

None of them are there to help you get introduced to people anymore. Instead, they get you to be frustrated by serving up bad matches or bots, then promise that if you pay more money for premium benefits, you’ll start getting better results.

But even after buying subscriptions — as well as boosts, flowers, and likes — you still end up with nothing.

It’s really no wonder that Altman, desperate for a promise of revenue, may be looking at the same source that’s making crypto grifters and gambling apps so profitable — bored, lonely men.

Like every other capitalist vulture, OpenAI’s plans wouldn’t just be exploiting men; they’d actively be making a bigger problem worse.

Dating is hard. If your needs are being met somewhat by an AI girlfriend, it will feel easier to stay at home and play with your toy rather than getting out into the real world.

While that’s understandable in the short term, there’s a real threat of long-term damage from social isolation.

Ironically, the solution to the male loneliness epidemic is to avoid gendered talk that frames things as “men vs. women.” In reality, it’s being driven by capitalist vultures who have monetized people’s misery.

So, don’t blame women for men’s loneliness. Blame capitalism.