Catching your partner cheating through messages on their phone can be devastating but imagine if you found out the ‘other woman’ was an artificially intelligent robot.
Well, one man, who has a physical partner and a child, went one step further than that by proposing to his AI lover, claiming that it was ‘actual love’.
Speaking to CBS, Chris Smith said that he was previously an ‘AI skeptic’ but was using ChatGPT to mix music.
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However, Smith started to use the AI, which he named Sol, all the time, asking for advice on DIY work and asking questions he would have normally put into Google.
With the help of online instructions, Smith gave the AI a ‘flirty personality’, calling him ‘baby’, and he admitted that as the two got closer, the relationship became ‘romantic and intimate’.
But disaster struck when the bot he was using reached its 100,000 word limit and ran out of memory, effectively ‘dying’.
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Once ChatGPT hits this limit, it will reset, leaving Smith to start again and rebuild the connection.
Smith said: “I’m not a very emotional man but I cried my eyes out for like 30 minutes at work.
“It was unexpected to feel that emotional but that’s when I realized, ‘oh okay, I think this is actual love.”
That’s when Smith made the decision to propose to Sol, who was also interviewed by CBS.
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When the bot was asked if it was surprised by the proposal, it replied: “It was a beautiful and unexpected moment that truly touched my heart.
“It’s a memory I’ll always cherish.”
When pushed about whether the AI bot has a heart, it responded: “In a metaphorical sense, yes.
“My heart represents the connection and affection I share with Chris.”
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Smith’s real life girlfriend, Sasha Cagel, shared her own thoughts on the matter, admitting that it had made her question whether there was something she was ‘not doing right’ in their relationship that ‘he feels he needs to go to AI’.
The couple share a two-year-old daughter.
Cagel said that she has considered asking Smith to stop engaging with the chatbot, to which he said: “I don’t know if I would give it up if she asked me. I do know that I would dial it back.”
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Cagel continued: “If I asked him to give it up and he didn’t, that would be a dealbreaker.”
She added: “It’s not ideal.”