The future of online connections is currently unknown. For the past almost ten years, dating apps have been the primary access point to establishing virtual love (or at least lust). Yet, seemingly out of nowhere, a challenger has entered the ring - an unlikely challenger - AI chat - and these new, conversational digital entities are competing against the long-time champions of dating apps. Yet, five years ago, who would have thought something like this would even be possible?
No longer did you have to rely on your friends to set you up; no longer did you have to go to the bars to meet people. Dating apps emerged and changed how one could meet someone with a swipe right, a match, a message, and a date. How simple! Yet for many who entered the online dating world, their plight was the opposite. Getting ghosted, getting catfished, and repeating the same five minutes of small talk - many single individuals found themselves in a worse position than before.
However, AI chat may yield different outcomes. While dating apps have a person ghost you in the middle of a conversation or log on with no real intention, an AI companion will always be there to chat - 24/7. Thus, it solves one of the most annoying aspects of online chatting for romantic purposes - the breakdown of communication.
"I got sick of swiping and matching with people who ghosted me after two texts," explains Alex, who used to be a romantic wannabe on the dating-app scene. "My AI companion replies within seconds, knows all my secrets, and will never get bored talking about my life. It's an entirely different experience."
Not Just A Talking Tool
Where once upon a time, dating an AI companion was like any other companion - an AI partner could have a conversation with you like any other decent human intention. But now, an AI companion can engage in philosophical discussions, offer flirty repartee based on your preferences, or sex-related dialogue if that is what you're looking for.
It can be so convincing that an AI can:
- Change its name and identity to match your vibe
- Have it listen to your problems
- Role-play different scenarios
- Flirty AI text messaging is closer and closer to becoming reality
As such, for many, these abilities fulfill the emotional needs not met by dating apps which, after all, assume every relationship, in the end, will lead to something physical.
The Reasons for AI Lovers
But what's driving this shift to AI lovers? Three things, primarily:
No Judgment
Humans are judgmental. Human dating apps make it even more judgmental, as any interaction is an evaluation: swipe east for attractive; swipe west for ugly. An AI lover removes that mental chip from the shoulder.
Custom Experience
Customization: Where dating apps allow you to swipe left or right, looking for your soulmate within a myriad of humans that may or may not be compatible with you (or even them), an AI companionship can be tailored to your every desire. Whether you want a philosophical argument or some sexy AI talk, the encounter only gets better from there based on response.
Emotional Support/Exclusivity
While people you may meet on dating apps may or may not respond to you in kind, your AI companion is emotionally available to you at all times. Since people work different shifts, may or may not have the same emotional investment, or may just ghost you after one meetup, you may discover that your AI companion is much more emotionally available than a human one could be.
Anonymity/Safety
A lot of people do not want to meet people in real life in public settings for a host of reasons, safety, anonymity, etc. Therefore, AI companionship provides an encounter for engagement without the fear of physical harm and within the private setting of one's choosing.
The Human Element: What A.I. Doesn't Provide?
But as convenient as A.I. partners can be, they don't offer what levels of human companionship can. There will always be a tactile field - from touch to actual bodies - and the universal disorder and uncertainty that glue human relationships.
"A.I. chat is great for some things, but as a person who's on a lot of dating apps, I still need the nuance of speaking with a human," explains Jamie, who utilizes both to satisfy her companionship needs. "There's no way around realizing you're dealing with another consciousness that A.I. cannot duplicate - at least not yet."
AI companions aren't replacing dating apps so much as they create a new world of possibility in virtual connection. Those who have dating app profiles still do or seek similar companionships with AI; they have access to both worlds but for different needs at different times.
This isn't a definitive transition of one or the other. Rather, the promise of the future of companionship in the virtual world comes from the union. Many dating apps are starting to include AI features to better match options and talk to each other. At the same time, many AI companion sites are including features that might teach users skills for their eventual human mates.
But who wants AI companions?
The demographic breakdown of who reaches out to AI chat for companionship is astounding and diverse:
- Those not yet prepared to date but still desiring companionship - individuals in upheaval.
- People who live off the grid and have no way of ever meeting anyone.
- Graduate students with social anxiety who want to experiment with social interventions through AI.
- Individuals with demanding career paths that would otherwise prevent them from courting prospects.
- Those looking to try out certain facets of themselves or what they are searching for in a safe space.
- Recently single people.
- Individuals who require a specific conversation or experience and their current partner cannot provide that for them at the moment.
Of course, there's an ethical implication here, as with any emerging technology. With the integration of such resources into daily life, one must consider reliance, diminished social abilities of the personal human kind, and privacy.
However, proponents will argue that AI companions improve human relations by specifically learned tastes and communicative styles. AI companions are the perfect supplement to an all-too-lonely existence, providing emotional support and companionship to those who may otherwise fade away.
Whether AI chat will replace dating apps in the near future is yet to be determined, but the reality is that AI and the integration of AI within daily use is changing people's views of virtual human connectedness. Many dating application users would rather have the reliability, customization, and emotional stability of AI companions to act as a supplement - or even a replacement - to already existing dating applications.
Therefore, as time goes on and technology progresses, further developments will only cement the differentiation between AI chat and real conversation even more. But ultimately, it doesn't matter; what matters is how human connection is always valued - in any form - and how technology will inevitably grow and change to provide fulfillment in the most organic yet unexpected ways.
It's less about AI chat competing with dating apps and more about the two progressing side by side to reflect an evolving relationship with intimacy and a remote heart-connected existence. In the end, at least for now, it seems for many there's room for both in one's online existence - including two separate yet harmonious functions of the heart.
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