AI "relationships"

Seriously you can generate a boyfriend or girlfriend? Thats creepy.

Clearly something is lacking in the relationship if they are seeking comfort from AI.

I would be wondering why they felt the need to do that and would see it as being problematic and frankly a bit sad/pathetic.

I wouldn't regard it as cheating.

I would consider the person unable to function in the real world which would mean that we are incompatible.

I wouldn’t regard it as cheating.

But I wouldn’t continue the relationship. Clearly they want something more. And I want someone who functions in the real world.

I would take it as a sign the person is just settling for thei real life partner. That they are on the look out for someone they regard as " better" and given the opportunity irl they would be off.
I would regard it as a betrayal of the person they are supposed to be in a relationship with and I would totally feel differently about them. And tbh it would affect my self confidence

I wouldn’t see it any different to gaming tbh. In some video games you pick a boyfriend or girlfriend. Some of the dialogue and relationships can be pretty steamy. Eg, baldurs gate 3. But I’d have a laugh with my partner about it, it wouldn’t make me uncomfortable. It’s just fantasy.

I would probably ask them if they felt happy with the emotional state of our relationship though. Like if they felt anything was missing. Just to be sure I was being the best partner to them I could be.

Of course if they became obsessive about it it would be a problem. Or maybe if they were engaging in prolonged dirty talk and getting off to it. It I would hope they would keep that to themselves. As it’s none of my buisness lol.

I don't much care if it's classed as cheating, but I'd find it entirely pathetic, and I can't be with anyone I consider a pathetic being.

Feels a little unfair.

I get the knee jerk reaction in that it’s geeky af but think of the other sorts of parasocial relationships people have. And geeky and cringe things that people do. If we rule out everyone just for doing something a little dorky, we might miss out on something that would have been good.

I travel places to see my celeb crush when he’s on stage.
I play the sims and sometimes I’ll make a cute guy character and play out a romance.
I chat with ai to ask its opinion on personal things sometimes.
I read the occasional smutty book.

People do all manner of things that other people would consider a bit “pathetic”. I know I’m not the only one. But we all do things that other people would probably think that way about. But whats actually pathetic is the need to dismiss other peoples guilty pleasures or things that they need for emotional wellbeing as pathetic just becuase you don’t do or understand it.

We don’t know why this person uses this ai relationship. Maybe they went through a tough time before they met the new partner and the ai girl/boyfriend was someone they could talk to without the judgement that clearly, humans display so readily. Maybe for example, they lost a parent and talked with the ai about that and giving it up now would feel like giving up someone that was a great comfort to them during that time.

We don’t know. So I’d try and put my ego aside and listen to my partner rather than just dismissing them as pathetic straight off the bat.

And that's perfectly okay for you and your partner. It's not for me though.

Playing out a romance between 2 characters in SIMS is not the same as thinking you're having an 'actual personal relationship' with an inanimate thing.
As lifelike as you make AI, I am only interested in relationships with people who want relationships with humans, so they wouldn't be for me. And knowing I only wish to have relationships with such people is not a knee-jerk reaction.

I would not regard it as cheating, but i would see it as creepy and worrying

Anyone who has an ai “girl/boy friend”while with a partner are looking for easy relationships where they are validated constantly, can’t deal with conflict and I assume, will withdraw from real life more readily so no, I wouldn’t want a relationship with someone who prioritised that.
As for those who don’t have a relationship, I wonder if they’d be able to handle the ups and downs of a real relationship if the ai one becomes their baseline.

I'd find it very odd and would want to know what this AI thing was providing that I couldn't. What needs were being met that I couldn't meet or support or something.

Only experience I have with something like this is someone I dated very, very briefly as he was using some AI-generated content that was basically violence towards women. Some of the women were depicted by the code as very young, made to look very much like 15 or 16 years old. I find that off-putting even without the aggressive aspect.

It's a creepy thing to do in my opinion. And immature too?

Personally I prefer relationships with real humans.

And as someone said earlier, it's leaking of emotional and probably also sexual energy outside of the principal relationship, so whilst not strictly cheating, it's seeking validation and support from a source that is not the main partner.

It's pretty screwed up. Someone earlier defending it, but I loathe the road us humans are being led down. Real human connection is being more than gradually undermined at pretty much every level.

I'd want to know why they've specifically contextualised this AI project as "a boyfriend" or "a girlfriend". If they want a manufactured AI-powered personality to interact with and develop a personal relationship with, why not a "friend" or "companion" or "conversation partner"? While it's probably technically not cheating - to paraphrase Queen Victoria, what could they possibly do? - acquiring any kind of "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" would seem to be at odds with being in a pre-existing monogamous relationship with some else.

Interesting:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/ai-girlfriend-interviews-chatbots

Scary:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/12/i-felt-pure-unconditional-love-the-people-who-marry-their-ai-chatbots

Major ick for me.

If there was someone that struggled socially and had never had a bf/gf, feeling lonely, not a lot of friends or much of a social life, I could almost understand them having this as a ‘fantasy’ and I’d feel sorry for them.

However, someone that’s in a relationship or has the social skills to go out and meet someone IRL I’d find it very sad and pathetic that they’d choose this option. It’s almost like they want someone they can control, won’t answer them back and will give them attention/validation.

its a bit worrying as could give completely false expectations of a relationship

https://www.reddit.com/r/antiai/comments/1wh9s59/do_people_really_have_ai_partners/

If you were in a committed relationship with someone and you discovered they had an app that generated an AI girlfriend or boyfriend, would you regard that as cheating?

Of course I wouldn’t regard it as cheating. It’s just fantasy. People have every right to fantasise as much as they like.

I’d certainly want to ask them about it and what they were getting out of it, and if they felt anything was missing in our relationship that had prompted them to do it, but I wouldn’t regard it as cheating and neither would I try to stop them using the app.

What about if they were having fantasy masturbation sessions with the bot and not as much or no sex with the human partner?

Fantasy masturbation? To me, that sounds so bizarre. How does that conversation go? I dread to think. I assume these are actual specific ais rather than asking ChatGPT for a date.

https://ifstudies.org/blog/counterfeit-connections-the-rise-of-ai-romantic-companions-

"These generative AI systems have typically been taught to be emotionally validating, caring, and always interested in what the user has to say, and, in many cases, to be overtly sexual. Many platforms intermix chat-based conversations with life-like, realistic, and sometimes sexually-explicit AI generated images for the fictional avatar. Many of these platforms allow individuals to “program” their ideal partners, creating idealized companions in terms of both facial features, body shape, dress and appearance, and personality traits. In some cases, users are allowed to generate images for their AI companion with body proportions that are unrealistic or depict an artistic style, such as anime."