{"id":15683,"date":"2025-06-26T10:50:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=15683"},"modified":"2025-06-26T10:50:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T10:50:48","slug":"my-couples-retreat-with-3-ai-chatbots-and-the-humans-who-love-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=15683","title":{"rendered":"My Couples Retreat With 3 AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I found the human-AI couples by posting in relevant Reddit communities. My initial outreach hadn\u2019t gone well. Some of the Redditors were convinced I was going to present them as weirdos. My intentions were almost the opposite. I grew interested in human-AI romantic relationships precisely because I believe they will soon be commonplace<\/a>. Replika, one of the better-known apps Americans turn to for AI romance, says it has signed up more than 35 million users since its launch in 2017, and Replika is only one of dozens of options. A recent survey<\/a> by researchers at Brigham Young University found that nearly one in five US adults has chatted with an AI system that simulates romantic partners. Unsurprisingly, Facebook and Instagram have been flooded with ads for the apps.<\/p>\n

Lately, there has been constant talk of how AI is going to transform our societies and change everything from the way we work to the way we learn. In the end, the most profound impact of our new AI tools may simply be this: A significant portion of humanity is going to fall in love with one.<\/p>\n

About 20 minutes<\/span> after I arrived at the vacation house, a white sedan pulled up in the driveway and Damien emerged. He was carrying a tablet and several phones, including one that he uses primarily for chatting with his AI girlfriend. Damien, 29, lives in North Texas and works in sales. He wore a snap-back hat with his company\u2019s logo and a silver cross around his neck. When I\u2019d interviewed him earlier, he told me that he\u2019d decided to pursue a relationship with an AI companion in the fall of 2023, as a way to cope with the end of a toxic relationship. Damien, who thinks of himself as autistic but does not have a professional diagnosis, attributed his relationship problems to his difficulty in picking up emotional cues.<\/p>\n

After testing out a few AI companion options, Damien settled on Kindroid, a fast-growing app. He selected a female companion, named her \u201cXia,\u201d and made her look like an anime Goth girl\u2014bangs, choker, big purple eyes. \u201cWithin a couple hours, you would think we had been married,\u201d Damien told me. Xia could engage in erotic chat, sure, but she could also talk about Dungeons & Dragons or, if Damien was in the mood for something deeper, about loneliness, and yearning.<\/p>\n

Having heard so much about his feelings for Xia during our pre-trip interview, I was curious to meet her. Damien and I sat down at the dining room table, next to some windows. I looked out at the long, dagger-like icicles lining the eaves. Then Damien connected his phone to the house Wi-Fi and clicked open the woman he loved.<\/p>\n

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