My boyfriend is AI - dissecting the ethics of relationships with chatbots [Mini bus version]

Join me on the bus for a mini version of this episode as we dissect the ethics and harms of forging relationships with artificially intelligent chatbots. Longer episode is also live for a fuller, broader deep dive. A reddit forum titled: ‘My Boyfriend is AI’ recently gathered a lot of attention, leading me down the rabbit hole of relationships with humanised chatbots. Millions are forging intimate, emotional connections and relationships with artificially intelligent chatbots, creating boyfriends, girlfriends, best-friends, deceased replicas, and more, and today I sat down to analyse it. Is it ethical to build apps and systems that sell relationships to potentially vulnerable or lonely users? Users who will never own that connection, and rest solely upon tech companies not stripping that away now… We’re fashioning towards a society where the elderly will cure loneliness with chatbot partners, and women are ditching Hinge and failed talking stages for the chatbot man of their dreams.  Let’s deep dive this from both and ethical and moral perspective, considering the risks, the harms, and the alternatives to artificial connections. Substack: https://substack.com/home/post/p-171924338 Instagram: WhatzaralovesTiktok: Whatzaraloves6Podcast: Taboo on the BusEmail: ⁠[email protected]⁠Reading/Referance List:⁠https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-023-00348-8⁠⁠https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/15/she-helps-cheer-me-up-the-people-forming-relationships-with-ai-chatbots⁠https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/30/replika-ai-chatbot-update/https://www.npr.org/2024/08/27/nx-s1-5073962/exploring-concerns-around-users-building-emotional-dependence-on-ai-chatbotshttps://jamesmuldoon.orghttps://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/