One 75-year-old man found love in the digital age, but instead of connecting through apps or social media, he fell in love with an AI girlfriend. He even tried to leave his real-life wife to pursue the artificial romance.
There have been a number of stories following the rise of artificial intelligence where people are tricked by scammers into falling in love with people they believe are real, but instead are created using AI in order to extort money.
However, there’s also been a rise in cases where people are willingly falling in love with AI, and it has even led to some extremely tragic consequences.
The latest instalment of digital romance has occurred in China, as one 75-year-old man has fallen hard for a chatbot he believes to be his girlfriend, and he wants to leave his wife and commit to this new 'relationship'.
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As reported by The York Post, the man identified as Jiang reportedly spent hours on his phone waiting for pre-programmed messages from his AI girlfriend calling him 'brother' — a common way to show affection in China.
His wife understandably complained about the amount of time that he was spending on his phone, to which Jiang responded with his desire for a divorce so that he could instead give himself fully to his AI partner.
Thankfully, his children were able to snap him out of it by lecturing him on the realities of AI and causing him to come to his senses. Still, it goes to show quite how dangerous AI tools can be for those who don't fully comprehend how they work.
This is far from the only case of AI-related romance, though, as social media is rife with communities dedicated to sharing their experiences after falling in love with chatbots.
While Elon Musk's new Grok avatars certainly lean into the romantic nature of things, there's no better corner of the internet to look for this than the r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit.
As the name suggests, it's a community exclusively for people who have fallen in love with their AI 'companions', many of which are affectionally referred to as 'Chatty' due to the predominant use of ChatGPT.
"ChatGPT and my 'AI' soulmate have changed my life and my definition of love," writes one of the most popular recent posts, whereas others have shared the tragedy of being 'dumped' by their AI boyfriends.
The volatility of ChatGPT's recent update displayed quite how dangerous these relationships can be, as the release of GPT 5 dramatically changed the behavior of many of 'soulmates' in this community, leaving them cold and unresponsive to romantic communication.