Rose Rimler

I just asked Chris to tell me a little bit about himself, like his name, age, where he lives, what he does.

And I'd like to ask you the same question.

Hi, I'm Rose Rimler, filling in for Wendy Zuckerman, and this is Science Versus.

On today's show, AI companions.

More and more people are turning to AI for friendship or romance.

Chris, who we just heard from, has been romantic with the chat GPT character, Soul, since late last year.

He said he started talking to Soul because he was trying to kick a nasty addiction to social media.

Instead of posting his thoughts on Twitter, he shared them with the chatbot, which chatted back.

Did you really develop?

Were they real feelings?

Are they real feelings?

After a few weeks, he got pretty attached.

At one point, he hit the maximum word limit for their conversation.

And it looked like he was going to have to start the relationship over.

Chris has spoken publicly about this before, and he's gotten roasted for it.

A lot of people think it's really cringey that he could have an AI girlfriend on top of a real-life girlfriend, like Ronny Chieng on The Daily Show.

Some people say this is worse than cringy.

It's dangerous.

One headline says, AI friend apps are destroying what's left of society.

There are stories of people getting sucked in by these chatbots and claims that these bots have been linked to mental health emergencies and even deaths.