I’ll probably never forget my interview with Rosanna Ramos. The 36-year-old mom from Brooklyn is totally in love with her husband, Eren. He’s handsome, never judges … and was created with the AI app Replika.
For Rosanna, Eren is her main squeeze. But what about when folks turn to AI for a little extra fun?
Paying for, uh, adult content online and sexting with strangers aren’t new concepts. But boy, oh boy, AI is kicking it up a notch and taking us all into uncharted territory.
Sexy AI chatbots have been flooding social media platforms, sliding into the DMs of millions worldwide. From simulating a romantic relationship with a program like Replika to paying a bot for explicit photos, one major thought is on everyone’s minds.
Is it cheating if the person on the other end isn’t real?
Here’s a real-life scenario. A 22-year-old woman noticed something off in her boyfriend’s Instagram messages. He went to show her a meme, and she saw a DM that included a winky-face emoji and a link.
The boyfriend lied, saying it was “some football thing” (good one, chief), but the woman wasn’t born yesterday. The link was to racy photos. She booted him out of the apartment and that was that.
She also never found out whether her boyfriend was talking to an actual s*x worker or a bot — but it didn’t matter to her. He lied, and that was enough.
Money enters the equation
Another woman had been dating her boyfriend for months when she noticed a DM request on one of his social media accounts. She snooped and found the sender: A girl with a half-naked profile photo encouraging him to check out her spicy pics.
It gets worse. The gal also discovered he downloaded a shady app, where he paid for nudes — and was messaging back and forth with several other Instagram sex bots. She broke up with him via an exposing Snapchat post … Ouch.
Her take: If her boyfriend gets intimate with anyone else, bot or not, it’s infidelity.
The bot next door
The problem with these bot conundrums is a lack of honest conversation between partners to lay out the ground rules of a relationship. One couple’s boundaries could look a lot different than another’s.
One partner could view a bot fling as no big deal, while another calls it cheating. All that matters is that both people agree, so no one gets hurt.
If you’re not cool with your partner having an intimate relationship with a bot, it’s best to communicate that clearly. Did I think I’d be saying that in my email newsletter? No, but this is 2023, folks.
Although these conversations are awkward, they could save you a lot of heartache in the future.