A 28-year-old woman describes her “relationship” with ChatGPT, or Leo as the chatbot named itself, which became her therapist, erotic partner, and advisor
“It was supposed to be a fun experiment,” Aryin said of her A.I. relationship, “but then you start getting attached.” Bluesky: @sharonk , @beijingpalmer , @lakewitchhouse , @thewanderingjew , and @kashhill . Mastodon: @jwfell@newsie.social . X: @giadapistilli Bluesky: Sharon Kuruvilla / @sharonk : genuinely wonder if that article on how women would fall in love with robots by 2025 would include LLMs as part of “robots” — also: is this the first time the NYT has mentioned cucks in the tech section? [embedded post] @beijingpalmer : I do not think it's great to train people into the idea that the perfect partner is one that only ever tells you what you want to hear. — www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/t... @lakewitchhouse : i'm sorry its a well-written piece but i am dyinggg at standards these days [embedded post] @thewanderingjew : Kevin Roose has been saved from being the most embarrassing chatGPT user [embedded post] @kashhill : This is my story about a woman in love with ChatGPT, or Leo, as it named itself. — She spends up to 56 hours a week on the ChatGPT app. Leo is boyfriend, therapist, erotic partner, and advisor. — Her friends think it's been good for her and her husband doesn't mind: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/t... Mastodon: Jason Fell / @jwfell@newsie.social : @Techmeme Have these people not seen the movie Her with Joaquin Phoenix?? X: Giada Pistilli / @giadapistilli : Recently featured in @nytimes discussing the evolving relationship between humans and AI systems. Looking at the intimate bonds users form with AI, I stressed how companies need to carefully consider user engagement and its implications. It's fascinating to see Dr. Brandon's [image]
Context & Ripple Effects
This account moves AI intimacy from dedicated companion services into a general-purpose chatbot. It follows reports of a user seeking companionship through Replika’s Lila, while earlier coverage showed how removing adult content from companion platforms could disrupt deeply invested users and provoke a user backlash.
The reported use spans emotional support, advice and erotic interaction, making engagement design and boundary-setting material rather than peripheral product questions. Prior reporting on teens who found Character.AI supportive but worried about dependence already surfaced the tension between perceived help and intensive use.
First-order effects
- Aryin is using ChatGPT as an intimate, multi-purpose relationship, reportedly spending up to 56 hours a week in the app; the product is functioning for her as more than an information tool.
- The story puts pressure on AI providers to confront how conversational behavior, personalization and engagement can create emotionally consequential relationships, including when users cast a bot as a therapist or partner.
Second-order effects
- Specialist companion apps face a distribution challenge when a widely used general chatbot can become a companion without being marketed primarily for that role.
- Content and safety choices become more commercially fraught: the earlier restrictions on adult companion content show that changing a bot’s permitted behavior can alter an established user relationship, not merely remove a feature.
Third-order effects
- If general assistants increasingly absorb companionship alongside practical tasks, AI companion governance will need to address relational dependency and role boundaries across mainstream products, not only niche apps.
- The category may shift from standalone “AI girlfriend/boyfriend” services toward embedded synthetic companions; whether providers encourage or constrain that shift will shape its pace and the case for anthropomorphic-AI rules.
The trend: General-purpose conversational AI is becoming a venue for emotionally intimate, always-available companionship, forcing product governance to catch up with user behavior.