Are We All Just Dating ChatGPT Now?

I grew up in the magazine age - the glossy pages of Seventeen and other teen girl magazines are where I got my earliest advice on how to flirt with boys and get over a crush. As the magazine era came to a close in the early 2000s, I never stopped to think about where future generations would get this same advice.

Now, we are in the age of AI. I have heard of many people using ChatGPT and Claude for everything from vacation planning to coding, job interview prep to grocery shopping - it can all be done with the new hot AI assistant. (sorry, Siri, I think you’ve been replaced!). It was only a matter of time before ChatGPT became a part of our dating lives too.

Recently, a friend in the midst of a rough period with her boo used ChatGPT to help explain her paramour’s behavior, as she figured out whether she wanted to break up with him. She sent ChatGPT screenshots of their texts and asked the AI why he would say things or what he might be thinking. I still struggle with AI’s interactions and opinions about human emotion, but I was surprised that I agreed with much of what ChatGPT spit out at her in the midst of this mind-boggling personal issue. The novelty of using AI to parse a tricky emotional situation blew my mind and clearly helped her navigate the break up.

ChatGPT is increasingly looking like a viable social option for people as a friend or boyfriend. When the confusing behavior of other humans breaks your heart and burns you out, who wouldn’t want the predictability of a computer to soothe you, guide you, and try to fulfill those things that intimate relationships do (yes, including robot sex). Maybe leveraging AI to manage your dating apps, or schedule dates for you, is the gateway to using it to draft messages and have whole conversations with potential lovers.

Which leads me to my question: are we all dating AI now? Is that who is writing messages to me, picking the restaurant we go to, and giving my date a boost? At what point does my date end and the AI take over?

I have a feeling the entanglement of AI and dating has more to talk about, so this is not the end, but merely the beginning of a longer line of questioning. How are our love lives changing as the lines between AI and real life blur?