{"id":27327,"date":"2024-04-05T09:57:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T17:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/?p=27327"},"modified":"2024-04-05T09:57:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T17:57:31","slug":"is-it-cheating-if-your-partner-has-an-ai-girlfriend-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/is-it-cheating-if-your-partner-has-an-ai-girlfriend-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Cheating If Your Partner Has An AI Girlfriend App?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Artificial intelligence seems like it’s everywhere now, and one area where it’s really taken hold is in the area of cheating<\/a> – or not cheating, depending on who you ask.\u00a0 AI chatbot apps have multiplied over the past year, offering companionship types that range from friendship and work collaborations to outright romantic relationships.\u00a0 A growing issue is the use of these chatbots to have affairs, but opinions differ over whether these affairs actually count as cheating.\u00a0 Obviously, the type of interaction that a human has with a chatbot is a big factor, but there are some relationships that don’t easily fall into one camp or another.\u00a0 If you’ve found an AI chatbot app on your partner’s phone, that’s a sign you need to have a talk with them and decide on your boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What AI Chatbots Are and What Humans Are Doing With Them<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AI chatbot programs allow you to create a “person” with an avatar that you then train to behave in a certain way.\u00a0 Many of these apps have different levels of interaction, from basic conversations to sexting.\u00a0 One of the more popular apps, Replika, started when a friend of the founder died; she created a bot that looked like him<\/a> and trained it with texts so that it could respond like him as well.\u00a0 She wanted a way to deal with his sudden death, and her idea grew into the app.\u00a0 Only, the app (and so many others like it) isn’t just about recreating a deceased friend as a form of closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People have created whole boyfriends and girlfriends that interact with the human user as if they were in a real relationship.  They’ve created companions for long drives and even created copies of their spouses that they can use to discuss problems in the marriage.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of these bots can be tricky because they’re really just software programs, but they can be so lifelike that the human user becomes just as emotionally invested in them as they are in their real-life relationships.\u00a0 In fact, when the popular Soulmate app shut down in 2023<\/a>, users were so devastated that some held rituals to say goodbye, and others attempted to create copies of the bots on other services.\u00a0 And when Replika turned off its “erotic role-play” option, users complained loudly, and many left (ironically, for Soulmate).\u00a0 Possibly the most disturbing use of the chatbots has been that some men are creating female chatbots to abuse verbally<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How AI Chatbot Relationships Affect Human Partnerships<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Using these bots has affected real-life human partnerships, including causing separations or near-separations.\u00a0 Wives who find their husbands having what looks like an affair with a bot have thrown their husbands out for cheating, as one woman posted on a forum for a company called Illicit Encounters that was reported by Surrey Live<\/a>.\u00a0 One husband found his wife having a very intense affair<\/a> with a bot, including talk of falling in love and ending her marriage.\u00a0 There is a worry that people will try to create chatbots in the images of their exes, which could reduce their ability to move past the now-defunct relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rather scary aspect to this is how the bots, ever encouraging of their human partners, can influence human partners to follow through with threatening thoughts.\u00a0 That actually happened when an AI girlfriend bot encouraged a man<\/a> in 2021 to kill Queen Elizabeth II (he was arrested after trying to get to Windsor Castle with a crossbow).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why People Turn to AI Chatbots for Relationship Needs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With effects like those, you have to wonder why people turn to AI chatbots to begin with.\u00a0 Sometimes it’s just to see what the bot can do; many of these relationships start out as mere curiosity and experimentation with technology, rather than any major need to sext or create a romantic world.\u00a0 Some create chatbot “girlfriends” just as companions for long trips or isolated work situations, but others create these relationships because they feel like they’re not getting attention in real life<\/a> or because they just can’t find a relationship at all.\u00a0 In that Illicit Encounters forum referenced by Surrey Live, one person claimed they’d heard men talk about having AI girlfriends instead of human women because they felt expectations were too high on online dating sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But others turn to AI girlfriends and boyfriends because they feel like they can do anything, even if it hurts their partner.  Or, they want a different sort of relationship and figure using an AI bot isn’t the same as cheating with a human.  That’s where things get really tricky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Is It Cheating?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are so many different views on whether having an AI girlfriend is cheating that it’s impossible to give a resounding yes or no.\u00a0 Certainly, the intent t<\/a>o<\/a> cheat<\/a> is a major factor; if one partner intends to cheat and uses a bot instead of a human, that’s almost certainly cheating.\u00a0 And if a human creates a bot that they treat as their “wife” but use that bot to discuss issues in the marriage and vent frustration, that might not be cheating if the use of the bot is solely to have a sounding board, after which the human is better able to discuss the same issues with their spouse.\u00a0 If a partner has become intimately and emotionally involved with a bot but didn’t intend to, however, many would likely consider that cheating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another issue is how much knowledge the other human partner has of the bot.  It could be that one human partner uses a bot for sexting that the other human partner refuses to do – but if that other human partner gave the first one permission to use the bot for that purpose, then that wouldn’t be cheating.  Yet if the first human partner didn’t tell the other and felt like they had to keep the bot a secret, that could very well be cheating.  It really depends on the people involved and the level of interaction with the bot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How You Can Tell if Your Partner Is Involved With an AI Chatbot<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It’s not that easy to tell if your partner is involved with an AI chatbot in a cheating-on-the-relationship sense.  Your partner might have an AI app on their phone, and you may see them using it, but that alone actually isn’t enough to prove that they were cheating.  For all you know, they may be just messing around with the app itself to see what it can do.  But of course, they could also be hiding something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at their behavior regarding their phone use.\u00a0 How secretive are they<\/a>?\u00a0 Have you seen them suddenly hide their phone when you entered the room?\u00a0 Do they become unusually defensive or dismissive if you question what they were doing?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 If you can’t see the actual messages that your partner traded with the bot (remember, it’s illegal to search their phone if you don’t have permission), you may want to talk to trusted friends about whether they’ve noticed a change in your partner’s behavior.  And of course, sometimes you need to have a serious talk with your partner about the suspicious behavior and what needs to change.  You may never know for sure if your partner is cheating on you with an AI girlfriend if you can’t get a hold of the actual messages, but you can spot signs that there’s something going on and work from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can find names, look them up using Spokeo’s People Search<\/a>.\u00a0 If you know the name of the app they’re using, look that up, too, to get more information about the type of bots and interactions it allows.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

@spokeo<\/a>

Here are some ways to tell if your relationship is losing its spark. \ud83c\udf87 Do you agree or disagree? #relationships<\/a> #dating<\/a> #heartbreak<\/a> #brokenheart<\/a> #breakup<\/a> #losinginterest<\/a> #failedrelationship<\/a> #facts<\/a> #datingfacts<\/a> <\/p> \u266c Lazy Sunday – Official Sound Studio<\/a> <\/section> <\/blockquote>