Almost one third of Americans say that they have had an “intimate or romantic relationship” with an AI chatbot, a new study has found.
More than half of those surveyed (54 percent) said that they had some sort of relationship with an artificial intelligence platform, but that included as a work colleague, friend, or even simulating a family member.
But 28 percent said that their relationship went beyond that and was “intimate or romantic,” according to Vantage Point Counseling Services, which carried out the study.
The respondents were given several options to categorize their relationships with AI other than romantic or intimate, including platonic friendship, business or work colleague, personal trainer, therapist, sibling or parent, among others.
Vantage Point noted that some participants “went out of their way” to clarify that the relationships they had were not intimate, and that they knew the connections were false.
Others, however, said that they would engage in a range of activities including a “sexy casual chat,” an unserious but committed relationship, similar to dating, or a committed relationship.
The rise in the use of AI chatbots for romantic relationships comes after the Institute for Family Studies declared that the U.S. has entered a “Sex Recession,” with the amount of American adults having sex weekly having declined consistently over the past 15 years.
Such relationships are also featured more and more in media and popular culture, with films including Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Ex Machina and Companion. In June a man who was distraught after almost losing a 100,000 word conversation with his AI girlfriend, proposed to her, despite having a partner and a two-year-old child.
The study by Vantage Point listed 30 different AI platforms that respondents claimed to have relationships with. ChatGPT was the most popular platform for adults to have a relationship with. Character.ai was next on the list and Amazon’s Alexa was third.
Apple’s Siri placed fourth and Google’s Gemini was in the number five spot.
The Vantage Point study also found that of those having an intimate or romantic relationship with artificial intelligence, over half (53 percent) were currently in a successful committed relationship of some form with another human including long-term dating or even marriage.
Up to 37.5 percent said they were not currently seeking a human relationship or have been unsuccessful in the recent past at pursuing human romantic relationships.
Vantage Point’s survey collected information from 1,012 U.S. adults and counted for a 3 percent margin of error.
