A sociologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is studying the artificial intimacy afforded to humans by AI chatbots — including for people who have IRL marriages., MIT researcher Sherry Turkle said that she's interested in "machines that say, 'I care about you, I love you, take care of me.'", with Turkle examining similar phenomena since the 1990s with interactive toys like Tamagotchis and Furbies.
. "It offers the illusion of intimacy without the demands. And that is the particular challenge of this technology."Though the unnamed man said he respects his wife, her focus has shifted away from him and onto taking care of their children, which to him made it feel like their relationship had lost its romantic and sexual spark.
"The trouble with this is that when we seek out relationships of no vulnerability, we forget that vulnerability is really where empathy is born,"she said. "I call this pretend empathy, because the machine does not empathize with you. It does not care about you."