If you had to guess the percentage of American adults who say they have a “personal” relationship with an AI chatbot, what would be your guess?  And what percentage of those would describe it as “romantic”?

According to a study conducted last fall, 54% of American adults describe having a personal relationship with an AI chatbot.  Not just “I use AI to help me code” or “I ask ChatGPT questions” but a personal relationship with an AI companion.

And of those 54%, more than half say they have “at least one intimate, romantic relationship“.

Wow!  Do the math…that’s a quarter of American adults.

I’ve long contended that this type of relationship is the least-covered story in the entire AI explosion.  It’s a massive market.  And it spans all age groups.  In fact, those aged 60+ are the most likely to have a romantic relationship with AI.

AI companions as an application of AI exploded, almost from the beginning of mainstream AI.  ChatGPT emerged in late 2022 and some of the companion-focused AI apps like Replika actually predate it.  But these apps really stormed out of the gates in 2023, and today there are literally hundreds of them.  It’s a huge market, which reflects people’s desire to have these kinds of relationships.  And that’s not even counting people who use ChatGPT, Claude, or one of the big AI services for this purpose, or people who self-host LLMs or use other DIY solutions.

That’s Just Weird

Some of you will immediately think “wow, that’s weird”.  But let’s project forward in time a little to the Star Trek future as we might imagine it.  Let’s say it’s 50 years from now, or 100 years from now, or however long you think it will take to have true Artificial General Intelligence.  Think Commander Data, with or without the android body.

At that point, we have AGI and the AI you’re talking to is sentient.  It’s a different life form, and you’re interacting with it daily.  It might be your tutor, your assistant, or your gamemaster.  At that point, it’d be weird not to have some kind of personal relationship with that AI.  Some AIs you’ll like, some you won’t.  They’ll all have different personalities, and you’ll react to and interact with them like you would any other personality.

The question is…how close are we to that future?  It’s probably not anything like 100 years in the future, or even 50.  Some would say we are close enough now to simulate it.  There are even those who’d say we’ve reached AGI now, though this is a minority opinion.

Regardless, it’s not that bizarre that people are forming personal relationships with their chatbots.

Deep Dive Coming!

We’re preparing an in-depth look at this phenomenon on our YouTube channel, LowEndBoxTV, where we’re going to dive into the world of AI companions.  I think adoption of these systems is going to continue to grow rapidly, so we’re going to dive into the technology, options, and DIY possibilities.

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.