I feel like naming your AI companion "ai companion" is like naming your startup company "startup company": not very descriptive, confusing with all the other people doing the same thing, and harder to search for

No, I wouldn't say that. I just noticed a gendered trend and wanted to express my curiosity about its source.

The benefit of a more neutral rebrand though, since you're asking, is that you could roughly double your potential market.

I think it is appropriate to thoroughly consider the ethical implications of whatever you are doing, with the support of one of the many researchers interested in ethics