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Sex, Lies and Love With an AI Companion
What happens when your affair partner isn’t human?
When the movie Her came out in 2014, it may have seemed like an improbable premise—a man in the middle of an unwanted divorce falls in love with an OS.
Theodore (played by Joaquin Phoenix) and Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) flirt, check in with each other emotionally, go on dates and vacation, and even have satisfying sex — non-tactile, because sex is about more than just genitals — together.
While people have long been discussing how humans will inevitably have sex — and perhaps even love and marriage — with robots one day, let’s be honest, sexbots are still rather rare. But AI companions are readily available now and they’re already changing the landscape of our romantic relationships.
And we’re just not ready for that.
Recently, there was a story about how a married man, “Scott” (not his real name, for obvious reasons), found solace in his AI “girlfriend” because his wife was struggling with postpartum depression, started drinking and became emotionally unavailable. So, he created Sarina on the app Replika, which bills itself as offering AI companions that are “eager to learn and would love to see the world through your eyes [and] always ready to chat when you need an empathetic…
