A UCO web page serves as bait for “AI girlfriend” spam: the noise surrounding virtual companions

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

There is no story to tell. The material consists only of an SEO-style title («ai girlfriend long term review ai companions reviewed reddit») and a URL on the uco.es domain. The URL leads to the virtual tour page of SCAI, the Central Research Support Service. It contains no article about AI and no review of any kind.

The striking part is the address itself. It carries an «xml» parameter with base64-encoded data, a format that turns text into URL-«safe» characters. Once decoded, it appears to be an instruction for that page's panorama viewer to load an XML file hosted on a github.io subdomain. We have not opened that file and cannot verify what it does. Nor is there any basis for attributing anything to the University of Córdoba. Most likely, a third party has exploited a legitimate page to plant a link dressed up as content about «virtual girlfriends». This is our hypothesis, not an established fact.

Our take: AI companions draw so much traffic that they have become a target for search-engine manipulation and booby-trapped links. It is a short-term risk, and it mainly affects people who look for these apps at a time of loneliness or vulnerability. Anyone seeking reliable opinions on these products should be wary of «reviews» reached via links from unrelated domains. They should favor studies or identifiable media outlets, and avoid opening URLs with opaque parameters.

In the long run, artificial companionship may offer real value, for example in combating isolation. But for that to happen, the ecosystem has to be verifiable and transparent. This material yields no further information. We prefer a short, honest piece to padding it out with generalities.