Over the past decade, artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa have become an integral part of technologies like smartphones and social media.
More recently, a new type of humanoid chatbot has emerged: AI romantic companions. Chatbots are AI-powered programs that interact with humans through text, voice, and images.
Currently, over 100 AI-powered apps, such as myanima.ai, Eva AI, Nomi.AI, and Replika, offer romantic and sexual companions with extensive customization options, including physical and personality characteristics. Featuring remarkable realism, adaptability, and interactive fluidity, these AI chatbots can gradually evolve over the course of conversations, adjusting their responses to match users’ interests, needs, and communication styles.
Modern AI chatbots have increasingly human-like qualities that increase users’ propensity to engage and form emotional connections, even to the point of falling in love.
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Exacerbated by restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, loneliness has led more people to use AI as a substitute for advisors, friends and romantic partners.
Romantic Partner Substitutes
Research shows that AI chatbots can provide companionship, alleviate loneliness, and boost positive emotions through supportive messages. Chatbots also provide a nonjudgmental space for open conversations and advice when other resources are scarce. People can also form intimate, passionate connections with AI that are similar to human relationships.
Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be a difference in terms of pleasure, sexual arousal, and emotional response depending on whether participants believe they are interacting with a human or a chatbot. One study even showed that people felt a stronger emotional connection with chatbots than with less responsive humans during a conversation.
Research repeatedly suggests that humans can form genuine emotional connections with AI, even if they recognize that it is not a “real” person. While many people appear to derive psychological benefits from using chatbots, the potentially harmful consequences of these relationships remain unclear.
The Dark Side of AI Love
Romantic chatbots are programmed to provide a unique form of companionship, with constant availability and fluid interactions while avoiding conflict and the need for compromise. This raises concerns about the impact on users’ expectations of human romantic and sexual relationships.
Romantic chatbots can hinder the development of social skills and adjustments needed to manage real-world relationships, including emotional regulation and assertiveness through social interactions. The absence of these elements can hinder users’ ability to cultivate authentic, complex, and reciprocal relationships with other humans; human-to-human relationships often involve challenges and conflicts that foster personal growth and deeper emotional connections.
The customizable nature and constant availability of AI companions can also lead to social isolation and emotional dependency. Researchers suggest that prolonged interaction with AI companions could cause individuals to withdraw from their immediate environment and reduce their motivation to form new, meaningful social relationships. Users may also come to rely too heavily on these digital entities for emotional support, companionship, or the satisfaction of their sexual needs.
A notable example occurred in 2023 when Replika removed sexual roleplaying capabilities from its AI companions. This change significantly altered the personalities of existing Replikas, causing considerable distress to users. Many users felt betrayed and rejected, and reported a deep sense of loss. Due to the outcry, Replika quickly restored the functionality for existing users.
Intimate surveillance
In 2023, a Mozilla Foundation security analysis of 11 popular AI chatbot apps revealed alarming privacy issues. Most of the apps could share or sell personal data, with half of them preventing users from deleting their information.
What’s even more concerning is that many of these apps are equipped with thousands of tracking devices that monitor users’ activity on their devices for marketing purposes. Another recent study of 21 AI-powered dating apps found similar privacy concerns.
Improve romantic well-being
Although empirical data is still emerging, AI-driven sexual interactions could offer a safe, low-risk alternative to sex and romantic relationships. Romantic and sexual chatbots hold particular promise for people who face major challenges in establishing satisfying romantic relationships due to illness, bereavement, sexual difficulties, psychological barriers, or mobility issues.
AI technologies could also be harnessed for sexual and romantic exploration within marginalized communities or among socially isolated individuals.
Additionally, chatbots can be used as a socialization and romantic search tool, helping individuals bond and improve their interactional skills. For example, research has shown their effectiveness in improving emotional communication within long-distance couples, while ongoing studies are exploring their potential to help individuals manage distress caused by ghosting on dating apps.
As researchers at the EROSS lab, located at the Université du Québec à Montréal, one of our ongoing studies is evaluating the use of chatbots to help involuntarily single people improve their romantic skills and cope with rejection.
Despite promising clinical applications, current research on the use of chatbots focuses primarily on sexual health education, covering topics such as sexually transmitted infections and reproductive health.
Relational revolution
Current advances in artificial intelligence technologies are ushering in a new era for intimate, romantic, and sexual relationships. AI chatbots can provide personalized and fulfilling romantic and emotional interactions, with promising opportunities to alleviate loneliness, improve romantic skills, and provide support to those struggling with intimacy.
However, these technologies also raise important privacy and ethical questions that underscore the need for an informed, research-based, and well-regulated approach to positive integration into our romantic lives. But current trends indicate that AI companions are here to stay.
This edited article is republished from The conversation under Creative Commons license. Read more original article.