A University of Córdoba link promoting “AI girlfriends” is spam, not a review by real users

By University of Córdoba (UCO) · October 13, 2026.

The material we received contains no newsworthy facts. All it has is a keyword-style headline («how to spot fake ai girlfriend apps ai companion app long term review from real users») and a description that repeats that text. There is no article content, no figures, no product names and no verifiable data.

The URL is the only thing that stands out. It points to a virtual tour page of UCO's SCAI service, but its query string carries a base64-encoded block. Once decoded, it appears to be an XML fragment referencing a resource hosted on an external domain. An identifier at the end repeats the headline text. We have not opened the link and advise against doing so. A legitimate university page accepting that parameter fits a known abuse pattern, in which the authority of an institutional domain is used to rank someone else's content. This is our reading based on the structure of the URL, not an accusation against UCO or anyone in particular.

Our take: there is no story here about virtual companions, and we won't make one up. What's useful is the context. Broadly speaking, AI «girlfriend» and companion apps generate highly lucrative searches, and that attracts sponsored reviews, fake comparisons and SEO pages. When a «review from real users» comes from a domain unrelated to the subject, or repeats keywords instead of describing actual experience, it's worth being skeptical.

The underlying issue, emotional dependence on artificial companions and the monetization of loneliness, deserves its own analysis backed by solid sources. We will cover it when there is real material to work with. For now, this piece is deliberately short.