It is Valentine’s Day, which for many married or dating couples, means exchanging sweets, sentimental notes, and perhaps a steak dinner. Others have dubbed it “S.A.D.,” which stands for “Singles Awareness Day.” Generally, though, we don’t assume there’s a third option for observers of this heart-shaped holiday, but now there is: AI girlfriends.

Artificial intelligence is more ubiquitous than ever, from the maps on our phones to the facial recognition software on security cameras. While the technology can be seen as a tool in such cases, it shouldn’t be undermined how it might also be leveraged to be cast as a person. AI, in this understanding, can bear sentience. It can “talk” to you.

So if you find yourself lonely this Valentine’s Day, certain AI companies have a palliative solution: don’t bother engaging with a real person, or initiate romance on your own. Simply download an avatar of your choosing and see where it goes. Who knows? Maybe the bot will “get you” like no one else ever has.

It is a tragedy indeed when our loneliness as a culture has developed so far that many people see chatbot companions as one of the only way forward. Social media, which itself involves algorithms designed to put you in virtual contact with “friends,” offers a similar kind of faux connection. But according to a post from Gizmodo, sharing too much personal information with a chatbot, like one would with an intimate companion, can entail a severe invasion of privacy. It’s been disclosed that companies are harvesting private information from people interacting with their online significant others. Just as Facebook was found to be mining people’s data without permission, now chatbots are the new seductive tool to get people to overshare their personal lives. Thomas Germain writes,

The privacy mess is even more troubling because the apps actively encourage you to share details that are far more personal than the kind of thing you might enter into a typical app. EVA AI Chat Bot & Soulmate pushes users to “share all your secrets and desires,” and specifically asks for photos and voice recordings. It’s worth noting that EVA was the only chatbot that didn’t get dinged for how it uses that data, though the app did have security issues.

-Thomas Germain, Your AI Girlfriend Is a Data-Harvesting Horror Show (gizmodo.com)

To state the obvious, chatbots don’t care for their human counterparts, and are at the whims of those who designed them. So, it isn’t surprising that they would be wielded in such a manner, especially when we’ve already seen Big Tech overreach user privacy time and time again. Many such companies then sell the user’s highly personal information to advertisers so they (the actual product) will be more susceptible to corporate influence.

Less Young People Are Dating

Recent studies indicate that members of Gen Z are dividing politically according to sex, with men leaning more conservative and women going more liberal. With less people willing to date across ideological lines, this means that more and more young people are single, unable to get into the game. Rikki Schlott writes for The Free Press,

Dating has always been hard. But added to the venom of modern politics, cancel culture, and the polarization of social media, it’s truly a disaster. We have an all-out gender war on our hands, a zero-sum game that absolutely nobody is winning. As we approach the age of 30, many of us are already rejecting the idea of marriage and kids. It’s hard to imagine how we will ever be able to put aside our differences to find love, let alone to start a family.

-Rikki Schlott, When It Comes to Sex, My Generation Is Screwed | The Free Press (thefp.com)

I reference this because it may become all the more tempting to offload one’s romantic life completely to the virtual sphere. After all, one can fashion an AI companion to be anything they want. But what’s the price? An invasion of privacy, data harvesting, and no real human connection.

Despite how easy it might be to live in an online fantasy world, getting out there and meeting real people is still certainly worth it. Attending church, book clubs, a running group, or attaching to some other community with likeminded people could serve as a step in the right direction. If you’re alone on Valentine’s Day, there is a better option than going to an AI girlfriend!