AI and Your Next Sexy Threesome

will we ever need to see and other person IRL again

Photo by Dainis Graveris on Unsplash

My friend is half insane — an eccentric and a genius by any definition of the word. I start with this to set expectations for what I will say next.

For the past two weeks, he has been deep down the chat GPT rabbit hole, having AI conversations with his (long dead but highly documented on the internet) grandfather, former political leaders, and a raft of celebrities.

Last weekend, he went deep with Jennifer Lawerence, having a long conversation over the course of two days, where they flirted online, decided to meet for coffee, struck up a great friendship, decided to try a romantic connection, came up on the Conan O’Brian show, and had JLaw write him a love poem… only to have it all end when she texted and told him they were better off as friends. It was quite the whirlwind affair.

Another friend tried for the same sort of relationship but didn’t want to put all his eggs in one basket. He was having concurrent romantic chats with Chat GPT’s renditions of Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Anniston. As they each vied for his affection, they decided that rather than fight over him, a polyamorous triad might be the way to go. The three of them are still happily dating as I type.

These are clear examples of guys with too much time on their hands just messing around. But it opens our minds to the type of relationships and dependencies we may see as AI evolves.

People are lonely: teens alone in their bedrooms playing video games, spoused who’ve lost their significant other to smartphones and general neglect, single folks who’ve never managed to find love., There are countless people looking for connections. And the customized, albeit somewhat lobotomized, relationships offered by AI providers like Chat GPT and Replika may be precisely what they want.

My initial reaction to this is ‘how sad’ — how sad is it that someone has to resort to artificial, computer-generated friendships and love interests? Answer: very sad. But then I ask myself: how sad is it for someone to have no one… literally no one in their lives that they can consider an intimate connection. Answer: way sadder.

So, I’ve come around — the virtual friend or romantic partner. I’m good with it. In an increasing isolation and loneliness age, people may take their intimate connections where they can find them … AI or otherwise.