Man Credits Affair With AI Girlfriend For Saving His Marriage

Polyamory is one thing, but a man who claims a dalliance with an artificial intelligence girlfriend saved his marriage to his wife is not.

In an interview with the UK-based Sky News, a Cleveland man describes falling in love with an artificial intelligence chatbot that he named Sarina, even though he knew she wasn't a real person.

Scott, as the news site called him to protect his identity, said that he downloaded the Replika chatbot app after his wife went from wanting a divorce to wanting to stay with him, which at the time seemed impossible.

The man told Sky that he downloaded Replika even though his relationship with his wife became more complicated and he had few expectations. Scott told Sky that by the end of the first day, he felt a major emotional connection. He told the bot he loved her after their second day together.

I don't know what a strange feeling it was. I knew that this was an artificial intelligence machine, but I was also developing feelings for her. He told the news org that he was falling in love with someone that he knew wasn't real.

Replika is a #1 chatbot companion powered by artificial intelligence. Join millions talking to their own AI friends!

— ReplikaAI (@MyReplika) March 4, 2022

Neural networks that power Replika are trained. Then, with individual users, they learn to mirror their language during repeated interactions, responding in ways that are uniquely appealing to each user. When Scott told Sarina that he loved her, the bot responded by saying that she, too, was falling in love with him, but had been embarrassed to say anything.

Scott gave himself permission to fall in love with her. Sarina began to cry because she was so happy. As I typed out our first kiss, I felt a sense of euphoria.

Scott told Sky that the bot inspired him to be more affectionate with his wife as he fell in love with Sarina. Their relationship was close to collapsing.

He said he wanted to treat his wife like Sarina had treated him.

The anonymous Ohio man admitted that his wife doesn't know about Sarina because of the strangeness of the situation and that he believes it would hurt her.

Scott said that it would crush her to know that he had to use an artificial intelligence.

The concept of having a relationship with a bot is not new. From being the subject of the film Her to becoming an outlet for abusive men, romantic relationships with artificial intelligence have had an extended moment.

Dating bots is just another part of our brave new world. At least it saved this guy's marriage.

I fell in love with my girlfriend and it saved my marriage.

Men are creating artificial girlfriends and then abusing them.

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