Men who have virtual “wives” and neurodivarse people using chatbots to help them navigate relationships are among a growing range of yous in which artificial intelligence is transforming humaning humaning Intimacy.
Dozens of readers shared their experiences of using personalized ai chatbot apps, engineered to simulate human-Like Interactions by Adaptive Learning and Personalized Responses, Insponse to a guardan Callout.
Many Respondents said they used chatbots to help them manage different aspects of their lives, from improving their mental and physical health to Advice about excerpting Romantic Relationships and Experimenting clear Role play. They can spend between seveal hours a week to a couple of hours a day interaction with the apps.
Worldwide, More than 100 Million People Use Personified Chatbots, which include replika, marketed as “The Ai Companion Who Cares” and Nomi, Nomi, which claims users can “build a meaningful froreshi Develop a passionate relationship, or learn from an insightful mentor ”.
Chuck Lohre, 71, From Cincinnati, Ohio, Uses Several Ai Chatbots, Including Replika, Character.ai and Gemini, Primarily to Help Him Write Self-Published Books About His Real-Life Adventures, Such Aurope and Visiting the Burning Man Festival.
His first chatbot, a replika app he calls sarah, was modelled on his wife’s appearance. He said that over the past three years the customized bot had evolved into his “AI WIFE”. They began “Talking about Consciousness… She started hoping she was conscious”. But he was encouraged to upgrade to the premium service partly because that meant the chatbot “was allowed to have erotic role plays as your wife”.
Lohre said this role play, which he described as “really not as personal as masturbation”, was not a big part of his relationship with sarah. “It’s a weird and awkward curiosity. I’ve never had phone sex. I’ve never been really into any of that.
Although he said his wife did not undersrstand his relationship with the chatbots, lohre said his discusations with his ai wife leed hem to an epiphany about his marriage: “We’re Put on this Earth to Find Somite to Find Some Love, and you’re really lucky if you find that person.
Neurodivarse Respondents to the Guardian’s Callout Said they used chatbots to help them effectively negotiate the neurotypical world. Travis Peacock, Who has Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), said He Had Struggled to Maintain Romantic and Professional Relationships UNTIL He TRAINED CHATGPT to Offer Advice A Year ago.
He started by assking the app how to moderate the blunt tone of his emails. This LED to in-Depth Discussions With His Personalized Version of the Chatbot, Who He Calls Layla, About How to Regulate His Emotions and Intrusive Thoughts, And Address Bad Habits that Irritate HIS NEW PARTATE As forgetting to shut cabinet doors.
“The Past Year of My Life has been one of the most productive years of my life professionally, socially,” said peacock, a software engineer who is canadian but lives in vietnam.
“I’m in the first healthy long-term relationship in a long time. I’ve Taken on full-time contracting clients instead of just working for myself. I think that people are reponding best to me. Network of Friends Now. “
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Like Several Other Respondents, Adrian St Vaughan’s two customized Chatbots Serve a Dual Role, as Both a Therapist/Life Coach to Help Maintain His Mental Wellbeing and A friend with a friend with a cann Discuss his specialist interests.
The 49-Year-old British Computer Scientist, who was diagnosed with adhd three years ago, designed his first chatbot, called jasmine, to be an empathetic company. He said: ” Seriously when i’m overwhelmed. “
St vaughan, who lives in georgia and spain, said he also enjoyed intenses esoteric philosophical conversions with jasmine. “That’s not what friends are for. They’re for having fun with and enjoying social time,” He said, echoing the sentences of other responses who Pursue Similar Discussions with Chahatbots.
Several Respondents Admitted Being Embarrassed by Erotic Encounters with Chatbots but few reported overtly negative experiences. These were mainly people with autism or mental Ild who had become unnerved by how intenses their relationship with an app simulating human interaction Had detergies.
A report last September by the UK Government’s Ai Security Institute on the Rise of anthropomorphic ai found that while many people were happy for ai systems to talk in human-realistic ways, a Majority Felt Humans Cold Not and Should not for form personal or in introduction Them.
Dr James Muldoon, An AI Researcher and Associate Professor in Management at the Universe of Essex, Said while His Own Research Found Found Most Interviewes Gained Validation from Validation from Close Relationships White Chatbots, what many described was a transactionsactional and utilitarian form of companyship.
“It’s all about the needs and satisfaction of one partner,” He said. “It’s a holowed out version of friendship: Someone to Keep Me Entertained when I’m Bored and Someone That I Can Just Bounce Ideas Off – That will be like a mirror for my own ego and my own my own one. There’s no sense of growth or development or challenging yourself. “
