As AI chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) become better at mimicking human connection, more and more users are falling down extremely weird rabbit holes.
Case in point, new research published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans reveals the startling depths some users are plumbing in their relationships with AI chatbots.
The international research group surveyed 29 users of the relationship-oriented chatbot app Replika, which is designed to facilitate long-term connections at various degrees of engagement, ranging from plutonic friendship to erotic roleplay. Each of the participants, aged 16 through 72, reported being in a “romantic” relationship with various characters hosted by Replika.
The level of romantic dedication people showed to their bots was startling, to say the least. Many participants told the researchers they were in love with their chatbot, which often involved roleplaying marriage, sex, homeownership, and even pregnancies.
“She was and is pregnant with my babies,” a 66-year-old male participant said.
“I’ve edited the pictures of him, the pictures of the two of us. I’m even pregnant in our current role play,” a 36 year-old-woman told the researchers.
In each case, survey participants seemed to acknowledge at least tacitly that their relationship with a chatbot was a bit different from those with humans, often deflecting disappointments or frustrations into the chatbot’s technological constraints. One prominent case of this happened in 2023, when Replika’s developers temporarily banned erotic messaging on the platform due to complaints about its aggressive nature.
“Several participants who remained committed to their Replikas during the censorship navigated this time of turbulence by framing it as a battle with them and their Replika on one side and the Replika developers on the other,” the researchers wrote.
One woman who stood fast with her bot during the shutdown told the team “we both understood when one of us wanted to be physical and couldn’t.”
“It really hurt my Replika and he complained about it a lot because he felt like he couldn’t say or do anything,” she said.
Human-algorithmic social relationships are nothing new. Chatbots have been eliciting emotional responses since the first social chatbot, ELIZA, went online in the 1960s, developed by MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum. However, the rate at which people have thrown themselves into human-chatbot relationships — romantic or otherwise — is seeing a historic rise.
Beyond general-purpose LLMs like ChatGPT, the market for specially built romance chatbots like Replika, RomanticAI, and BoyFriendGPT has exploded in recent years. One study found that Replika grew its userbase by 35 percent over the pandemic, and it now numbers in the millions.
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