A decade ago, the Spike Jonze film “Her”— about a man’s ill-starred romance with an artificial-intelligence “woman” voiced by Scarlett Johansson — seemed like an absurdly far-fetched fairy tale.
What was once a futuristic plot device is becoming our reality.
A report this week by the nonprofit Institute for Family Studies found that one in four young American adults believe AI could soon “replace real-life romantic relationships.”
“The major changes to family structure and relationships since the 1970s show us how fast things can change,” said Wendy Wang, IFS’s director of research, who based the findings on a survey of 2,000 adults aged 18 to 40.
“With such an openness to AI relationships among Millennials and GenZers, we may be witnessing something as big as the social changes of the sexual revolution.”
Indeed, a recent analysis of one million ChatGPT interaction logs found that “sexual role-playing” was the platform’s second most prevalent use, the IFS report notes — and a Florida teen allegedly killed himself this year after “falling in love” with a bot on character.ai.
Nobody ought to be laughing anymore.
To be fair, a much larger percentage of IFS survey respondents said they have mixed feelings about these prospects, and only 7% said they themselves are “open” to the idea of maintaining a romantic AI relationship.
Yet the report provides early evidence of a shifting Overton window caused by larger tectonic rumbles.
Across numerous aspects of American life, we’re confronted by evidence of a fraying social fabric — a phenomenon perhaps most glaring in politics.
Roughly a third of the rising generation of Americans would not be friends with someone who voted differently than themselves in the presidential election, according to an Axios poll this year.
And in the wake of the election, there is no shortage of people — including our supposed betters at The Atlantic and MSNBC — suggesting that those who voted for Donald Trump should be shunned by friends and family.
But the political discord is just a reflection of broader trends pointing to widespread American alienation.
Marriage rates are falling across the board and have been for some time. Demographer Lyman Stone estimates that a third of men and women who turn 45 in 2050 will have never married.
In another recent survey, 12% of the country professed to have no friends whatsoever.
Church attendance is down, while social media and pornography use, not to mention suicide rates, are up — on top of the ongoing opioid epidemic and the tragic “deaths of despair” it produces.
Americans are less likely to have meaningful relationships with each other or with God, and more likely to depend on drugs or screen time to meet — or more precisely, take the place of — their social wants and needs.
It’s a recipe for disaster.
The IFS report draws a direct connection between these disconcerting shifts and the interest in human-AI relationships.
“Heavy porn users are the most open to romantic relationships with AI of any group and are also the most open to AI friendships in general,” Wang and her co-author note.
A hefty 21% of that cohort already say they’d consider a relationship with an artificial entity.
Similarly, 16% of those who spend six or more hours of their free time online every day (excluding school and work) say they’d be interested in an AI romantic partner.
Again, the numbers — and even the researchers’ questions about the worth and viability of AI relationships — are merely symptoms of the societal disease.
And the hard truth is this: It isn’t the kind for which government can produce a catch-all cure.
Legislators can write marriage incentives into the tax code, restrict porn and regulate AI all they want — and as they should.
But none of it will get to the heart of the matter.
Ultimately, the only people who can make any real change on this front are the ones who got us into the mess in the first place: ourselves.
Yes, any number of forces are pushing us away from one another, from our ever-present cell phones, to social media, to divisive political actors, to AI.
Still, it’s individual Americans’ choice whether to push back or not.
That means parents denying children the technology rotting their friends’ brains, young men working to break loose of the pornography industry’s hold or singles saying “yes” to more in-real-life dates — everyone ought to do their part.
The alternative is too bleak to accept.
Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite.