A UCO page used as bait to promote an "AI girlfriend" app: the sign of SEO abuse

By Universidad de Córdoba (UCO) · October 15, 2026.

The available material is minimal and contains no news or review. All that arrives is a feed headline, «ai girlfriend app tested and reviewed ai girlfriend tested usa», attributed to the University of Córdoba, and a URL. There is no article text, no figures and no data on any app.

What can be described is the URL. It points to a page of the UCO's Central Research Support Service (SCAI), a virtual tour. But the link drags along strange parameters: an «xml» field with base64-encoded data presented as «video/mp4» and an identifier that repeats the title of the supposed review. That combination does not correspond to a product review.

We cannot say who is behind it or with what intent, and we have not verified the content. But the pattern fits known search engine optimization (SEO) spam practices. In general, it consists of exploiting manipulable URL parameters on reputable sites, such as universities, so that search engines and aggregators index commercial phrases that have nothing to do with the domain.

Our take: the relevant fact is not the «review», which does not exist, but the signal. Institutional domains act as a seal of credibility, and whoever uses them as a shop window gains borrowed trust. That matters in a market like AI virtual partners, where users may be emotionally vulnerable and hand over very intimate data.

The practical consequence is simple. A «tested» review on an unexpected domain deserves no more trust for being on a university site. It is worth checking who publishes it, what privacy policies the app has and whether there is independent evidence.

In the short term, AI makes producing this kind of junk content cheaper and complicates search engines' work. In the long term, that same technology will make it possible to filter it better, and digital trust will have to rest on verification and not just on domain reputation. In the meantime, this piece is deliberately short: with so little material, any longer analysis would be filler.