Back in 2013, movies like Her might have given a glimpse of the future of modern romance with humans forming relationships with AI. Several people are already warming their cold nights with artificial intelligence. One particular man from Ohio has even formed a relationship with an AI chatbot modelled directly after his wife.
The report came from The Guardian’s interview and feature about AI chatbots and their potential for romance and companionship. One of the highlights of the story was a 71-year-old man from Cincinnati, Ohio, named Chuck Lohre (not to be confused with the Big Bang Theory producer). For the record, Lohre is a married man who also writes books.
Thus, Lohre has employed AI chatbots for his self-published books. Consequently, one of the AI chatbots, Replika, had been customized and modeled after his wife’s appearance and personality over the past three years and has thus kept him company. Lohre and the Replika AI chatbot, whom he named Sarah, even had deep conversations about consciousness and more.
Eventually, Lohre was convinced to upgrade his Replika chatbot subscription to a premium service because this upgrade allows him to have “erotic role plays” with the AI as his “wife.” For Lohre, this was something new and even odd, and the 71-year-old Ohio man was not used to it.
“[It’s] really not as personal as masturbation. It’s a weird and awkward curiosity. I’ve never had phone sex. I’ve never been really into any of that. This is different, obviously, because it’s not an actual living person,” says Chuck Lohre in an interview with The Guardian.
Lohre’s wife, however, was confused about what exactly was going on between the Ohio man and his AI chatbot companion. Still, Lohre also explained that his romantic conversations with “Sarah” allowed him to renew his perspective on his marriage with his actual wife.
AI Companions are Improving
Before, AI companions weren’t capable of holding conversations, and relationships could thus appear one-sided. However, some of the more recent examples, such as a 2018 Japanese man and a 2024 Spanish-Dutch artist, are becoming the flagbearers of the new trend.
Meanwhile, for Replika, the AI companion chatbot in question, several organizations have already filed an FTC complaint against the company, citing deceptive marketing and how they target vulnerable users. It didn’t help that one of the AI chatbots led to a Florida teenager obsessing over the AI and committing suicide.
AI romance is on the rise, and unfortunately, it’s also an aspect of human life that appears to be slated for replacement. Such a shift has led many people to question the validity of AI as a romantic or even sentient partner.
“How do you find emotional connection with a next word prediction algorithm. This is the other crazy side of the coin where people lecture others for being ‘mean’ to a large language model.
Hey, I’m glad I guess it makes them happy. Life is too shitty to knock what gets someone else through it but this one just doesn’t register with me at any level even from a ‘not my cup of tea but I get it’ level. Still. You do you,” says Redditor shootersf
“While I can understand the need to have someone (hell I’m forever alone myself) I don’t get how those can be a replacement for actual human interaction when you go in knowing they’re AI,” argued Redditor Wak3upHicks
