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If you use online dating websites, you may assume the person you're talking to is, well, a person. But in some cases, you may really be chatting to a computer. The controversial adultery website Ashley Madison says it's being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission for the use of chatbots. These computer programmes, which are also called fembots, impersonate real women, striking up conversations with paying male customers. Ashley Madison was attacked by cyber-criminals a year ago and the identities of its users revealed online. The website Gizmodo estimated that only 12,000 of the company's 37 million members were women. The new head of the company says the website will no longer use fembots. Rob Young talked to Robin Levinson King, who works for the Toronto Star newspaper, in the city where the dating website is based.

(Picture: Ashley Madison's website. Picture credit: Getty Images.)