It is over ten years since the release of Spike Jonze’s film Her, in which a lonely man begins a relationship with a computer programme voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Since then, AI companions have surged in popularity. A new generation is now growing up with large language models and the chatbots they power, with AI entities playing the role of friends, lovers, mentors and therapists.

If this all feels like a Black Mirror episode come to life, says author James Muldoon, you are not far off the mark. For a new book, Love Machines, he has talked to hundreds of users, developers, psychologists — and synthetic personas — to understand this new world of human-AI relationships. In this episode, he talks to Carl Miller about these new forms of love, intimacy and connection; the unregulated corporations seeking to profit from the ‘loneliness economy’; and what the rise of artificial intelligence in our personal lives might mean for our relationships with one another.

James Muldoon is a sociologist whose work explores the human side of artificial intelligence and other technologies. His new book, Love Machines, is available to buy now.

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