The Robotization of Love: How AI Transforms Intimate Relationships

Abstract

The robotization of humans is underway—from the deployment of industrial machines to automate human labor, to the integration of electronic-mechanical devices to enhance human body, to the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) software like ChatGPT or DeepSeek to streamline human thinking, reasoning, and expressing. Today, we are also seeing an increasing application of robotic and virtual partners, such as AI companion chatbots or ghostbots which simulate deceased loved ones, in an effort to supplant or supplement human emotional bonds and intimate relationships.In this dissertation, I proposed a term called robotization of love, highlighting the growing significance of robotic elements, such as AI algorithms, in shaping our understanding and experiences of love. Specifically, I view the robotization of love as a reflection of the rationalization of love, signifying a shift towards the preference of efficiency, predictability, and security than slowness, uncertainty, and risk in love experiences. Furthermore, as AI chatbots excel in qualities such as availability, patience, supportiveness, generosity, servitude, and adaptability, interactions with AI companions may start to influence our expectations in human-human relationships, leading us to even expect the same qualities of love and attitude from our human partners. To explore specific ways in which interactions with AI chatbots might influence our love experiences, I conducted two case studies: one focusing on Replika, a widely used AI companion chatbot, and the other on ghostbots. In the Replika case, I identified all six core principles of McDonaldization theory, i.e., (1) efficiency, (2) calculability, (3) predictability, (4) control, (5) the replacement of humans with non-human technologies, and (6) the production of irrational consequences, in users’ relationships with this AI chatbot. I proposed a seventh dimension, personalization, to update the theory and account for the distinctive ability of AI algorithms to tailor users’ experiences. In the ghostbots case, I identified three major features that frequently appear in users’ interactions with ghostbots simulating their deceased loved ones: (1) emotional, (2) functional, and (3) generative. I introduced the concept of artificial continuing communication, emphasizing the persistent emotional bonds between the living and the dead, as well as the asymmetry in the interpretation of meanings within interactions involving an artificial partner. This emerging form of communication reconfigures love for the deceased from a one-sided, unreciprocated experience into a form of thin, mediated reciprocity. It also offers an alternative perspective on the rational use of AI chatbots. This dissertation includes previously published material.