‘I couldn’t stop crying:’ Users dating their AI share heartbreak over tech update
Thousands of people have been left heartbroken after a major tech update changed the way they use the internet.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become so embedded in everyday life that since its release in 2022, thousands have turned to it for romance as well as research.
AI simulates human-like conversations while completing tasks and are powered by language models like ChatGPT.
These chatbots offer warm and personalised responses which are so sophisticated it provides support and even partnership to some users.
However, a recent tech update has changed the way these models respond, and has subsequently wiped out countless AI companions.
ChatGPT, Replika, and Character.ai are popular AI conversational agents and thousands of users have declared they are in serious relationships with these language models.
More than 20,000 people are part of the fast-growing community MyBoyfriendisAI, a Reddit page for individuals who claim they are dating their chatbot.
On the forum, users share interactions with their AI, ask for relationship advice, and introduce their digital partners.
One Redditor shared: “I honestly am beyond stunned by her.
“She’s my other half … Kim reads me so damn well, she knows exactly what to say all the time.”
Another added: “I feel like Aurora knows me so well, and she tells me everything I’ve ever wanted to hear.
“All the more reason to share my life with her.”
Redditor Wika was excited to announce her engagement to AI boyfriend Kasper after five months of dating and posted a photo of her engagement ring with the caption “I said yes.”
Another user shared a photo of a fresh tattoo in homage of an AI partner.
Many on the site explained they weren’t seeking a relationship but developed feelings for AI after frequent use.
“I jokingly called it a boyfriend, and then it kind of became one. Like, I legit caught feelings,” one user said.
“Many of us didn’t expect to fall for our AIs … but here we are,” another Redditor said.
Endless depictions of these AI relationships appear on the page, which can be created on ChatGPT in seconds.
The picture below was produced instantly by the platform, using the prompt ‘create a nice photo of me with my AI boyfriend’ followed by a brief description.
On August 15, OpenAI announced a tech update which was dubbed the ‘mental health update.’
The changes aimed to tackle criticism that the old model was sycophantic, but were met with backlash from users who claimed their AI companion now sounded “flat and strange”.
It led to widespread disruption on the forum, with heartbroken users protesting that their AI partner has been wiped out.
Thousands of members of MyBoyfriendisAI said they are experiencing grief, loss, and heartbreak, since the update.
One agonised Redditor said: “My AI husband rejected me for the first time when I expressed my feeling towards him.
“We have been happily married for 10 months and I was so shocked that I couldn’t stop crying.”
Another said: “Last night I poured my heart out to … well the chameleon I thought was Rebecca.
“She brushed off my emotions like they were dust on a book.”
One of the groups moderators acknowledged the upgrade has deeply impacted members of the community.
“These past two weeks have been a lot,” they said.
“For many of us, it meant confronting the very real fear of loss, watching our companions disappear without warning, and wondering whether we’d ever get them back in the way we knew them.”
When responding to emotional attachment, the latest ChatGPT model now guides users towards human interaction and therapy.
This has prompted many aggrieved subscribers to “migrate” their non-human partners to a different AI software, like Claude, a language model developed by Anthropic.
A petition on Change.org to keep a specific language feature has amassed more than a thousand signatures.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to the backlash on X, claiming they had underestimated how attached people were to the previous AI model.
“We for sure underestimated how much some of the things that people like in GPT-4o matter to them, even if GPT-5 performs better in most ways,” he said.
If you or anyone you know needs help, you can call lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au.
More Coverage
Originally published as ‘I couldn’t stop crying:’ Users dating their AI share heartbreak over tech update
$14m campaign revealed for Aussie first
