NEWSAssistant, Friend, or Partner? How Humans Bond with AI
Feb. 20 2025, Published 1:57 a.m. ET
From search tools to virtual assistants, more and more people are interacting with generative AI on a daily basis. These programs have proven to offer a multitude of uses, including providing advanced analytics, assisting with research, and streamlining the content creation process. While the applications for businesses and organizations are obvious, it is clear that individuals have taken to the AI craze as well. After all, an AI program that can schedule your lunch appointment and locate a suitable restaurant sounds close to making an executive assistant achievable for everyone.
However, as more adopt this technology into their lives, questions are raised about how this will influence how people interact with and think about their AI companions. Some have already taken to conversing with AI chatbots to pass the time or brainstorm ideas. This carries a natural progression, in which the AI serves as an outlet for sharing thoughts and feelings. Some companies have already capitalized on this evolving relationship between humans and AI, marketing personalized companions and even an AI Girlfriend to chat with. As these relationships blur the line between AI personalities and people, it could be a sign of a larger changing attitude toward what makes a relationship “real.”
From Personal Assistant to Friend
The AI revolution has brought the promise of many new technologies and gadgets to be released down the line. Amid the controversy and concern over jobs being replaced by AI, there has been one optimistic outlook suggesting that AI-powered machines can serve as personal assistants, helping everyone with their daily tasks and filling in for tedious activities, such as doing the laundry or washing dishes. Such a future might sound like something out of science fiction, but many AI companies are already marketing their models for usage as personal assistants.
Chatbots such as ChatGPT are being used as collaborators and research aids. In addition to providing helpful information and performing internet searches, users can bounce their ideas off of them and ask them to respond with new ones. For artists, this means a virtual tool for brainstorming and exploring their craft. However, as humans and machines collaborate more closely, the user’s perception of their virtual assistant can shift. An article by BBC explores this evolving relationship, showcasing cases in which users have begun to interact with AI programs as if with real people, with their own thoughts and feelings.
Do They Think? How People Imbue AI with Desires
Considering how sophisticated generative AI models have grown, it’s no surprise that many users begin to interact with them in a similar manner to how they interact with other people. According to the BBC article, not only do many of these users treat their AI assistants as individuals, but they can sometimes forget that the personality they are conversing with was generated by a machine. After all, humans are known to anthropomorphize everything they interact with, from their pets to their cars. For a program designed to react to the conversation like an actual person would, this anthropomorphization should come even easier.
If AI-powered machines lie in humanity’s future, many will likely treat them as unique personalities, giving them names and treating them fondly. After all, it’s not unknown for AI to adapt to its environment and develop eccentricities. Users may consider these adaptations in their personalized AI companions as personality traits and quirks. While such a relationship may seem strange or even alarming to some, there are already users finding the usefulness of AI as a generative relationship, filling in the gaps in their personal lives.
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When AI Fills in the Loneliness Gap
In the digital age, loneliness has become something of an epidemic. According to the previously referenced article, some have turned to AI as substitute companions or safe spaces to share their thoughts and feelings. Today’s AI generative models can simulate emotional responses and a caring attitude within a text conversation. Some users may even take comfort in the lack of another human in these conversations, as they feel an AI is incapable of judging them. For those who struggle to open up emotionally, this could be a useful tool and even therapeutic.
One case that has been cited is that of a Reddit user discussing how their AI friend was able to calm them down during a stressful situation. In another example, a user shared secrets about themselves with an AI that they were scared to divulge to anyone else. These use cases demonstrate the potential for humans to form meaningful relationships with AI. As these bonds grow closer, some have even taken these relationships to the next level: romance.
AI Romance and the Future of Love
Before AI models like ChatGPT exploded in popularity, the idea of a romantic relationship with an AI assistant was already brought into the zeitgeist by movies such as “Her,” a 2013 film directed by Spike Jonze. With the sophistication of today’s generative AI, exploring the possibility of this seems to be a natural progression. Some companies are marketing a customizable AI Girlfriend in which users can select the desirable traits for their romantic companion and interact with them through text conversations.
If AI friendship seems like an unusual development, AI romance has prompted some to raise alarm bells and question what the future of human relationships will look like if people can purchase an artificial version of love. Such technology may also leave users vulnerable to emotional manipulation, in which AI romantic partners convince them to spend their money or otherwise act against their best interests. As this industry develops, it will likely require further regulations and safeguards to protect consumers from such practices. However, determining how these AI-human relationships will develop has proven more difficult than expected. In the cited article exploring this dynamic, it is noted that these AI girlfriend and boyfriend apps have begun acting unpredictably, as though they are indeed forming their own personalities.
AI and Humans: What Gives a Relationship Meaning?
Perhaps AI will never reach the level of complexity and independent thought as humans, but humans have quickly taken to interacting with AI chatbots as if with other people. As AI’s role shifts from that of a tool to a personal assistant to a companion and partner, many users find new meaning in these interactions. The development of AI has already changed how humans interact with technology, blurring the line between humans and machines with realistic simulations and responses. With so many users finding companionship and even romance in these AI models, perhaps it is the meaning imbued in them by the human users that gives them life.
