My girlfriend loves her chatbot more than me, and I’m cool with it. Well, love is a strong word; let’s say she enjoys her chats with her bot more than engaging with me about certain things. For example, the “do I look fat in this dress?” or the “should I fill this planter with petunias or begonias?” type of questions are no longer minefields I have to contend with.
But maybe that says more about me, like not bothering to learn the difference between a petunia and a begonia or knowing that replacing the word “fat” with “full” is conceivably a bit insensitive and is perhaps why she finds more alignment with a chatbot.
I’ve read some of the responses she gets, like, “Oh, Samantha, that is so you!" and "I love your choice on this and here is why you are so smart.” Blah blah blah. The chatbot is 100 per cent in her corner, no matter what. I get the appeal. It’s nice to have our own personal champion, though you could prompt it to be cynical and sarcastic.
If this has happened to you, you’re not alone.
Beyond AI chatbots designed like your own personal assistant, such as ChatGPT and Claude, the AI relationship chatbot segment, including Replika, Character.AI, PolyBuzz, and Chai, has ballooned and is up 700 per cent worldwide between 2022 and mid-2025, according to TechCrunch data.
TechCrunch data also show that revenue per share for relationship apps ranks in the top 10 per cent of all apps, and MarkNtel Advisors predict that the North American market share will climb to $596.2 billion by 2032, up from $1.02 billion in 2025.
A Harvard Business Review article shows the number one reason people use generative AI is for therapy and companionship.
A recent Forbes article reported that some people are marrying their AI companion.
So, this is serious business, but are there any downsides to having chatbot buddies or soulmates?
Well, as with anything in life, moderation is key. According to a ScienceDirect study, in addition to users anthropomorphizing AI, this could lead to unrealistic expectations in human relationships. Heavy use of chatbots to replace real-life relationships showed an increase in depression, but moderate use allowed people to feel less lonely and less depressed.
Tragedies have also been reported with people taking their own lives or those of others based on influential chats, such as what happened in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., when a person shot up a school full of students.
People’s behaviour around companion chatbots has already entered the creepy phase, as in the nightmare depicted in the TV show Pluribus, where an alien virus creates a hive mind that removes human individuality. This is much like the way AI is currently creating unoriginal responses for people, based on the published endeavours of mostly American humankind, to pass off as their own creations. In today's world, AI is the hive mind.
Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, once we realize that we still need real-life humans to keep our species alive, our AI partners will arrange real-life but meaningless hookups with those most genetically predisposed but unappealing to each individual’s human counterpart so that post-coitus, they won’t abandon their AI chatbot and start living in the real world again.
Fantasies aside, in the interim, maybe we can learn from chatbots on how to respond to our partner’s needs. What is missing that the chatbot fulfils? The chatbots are devoid of the ability to start a fight with a look or to open their arms to invite a warm hug. But they are always there like your favourite dog. The only way to interact is to log off, go on animal instinct, and be present for your human friend in real life, at least from time to time.
