AI-Human Romances Are Flourishing--And This Is Just the Beginning

Fictional humans have been falling in love with robots for decades, in novels like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), The Silver Metal Lover (1981) and films like Her (2013). These stories have allowed authors to explore themes like forbidden relationships, modern alienation and the nature of love. When those stories were written, machines were not quite advanced enough to spark emotional feelings from most users. But recently, a new spate of artificial intelligence (AI) programs have been released to the public that act like humans and reciprocate gestures of affection. And some humans have fallen for these bots--hard. Message boards on Reddit and Discord have become flooded with stories of users who have found themselves deeply emotionally dependent on digital lovers, much like Theodore Twombly in Her.