Sacramento woman is convinced her AI boyfriend is seeing other women and is seeking counselling.
Pat Akake (27) lives a very busy life which doesn’t leave any time to form a relationship with a man in real life. Her schedule of work followed variously by sessions at the gym, swimming, Lindy Hop dancing or karate leave almost no time for socialising. What little down time she has is spent with one or two of her besties.
Realising that she was in need of romance in her life Akake decided to have an AI boyfriend. Having downloaded the app, picked an avatar and naming him Alex she started a relationship with him.
They were happy together for many months until she started having suspicions. Travelling in to work on the bus she noticed another woman who seemed to chatting with someone who looked like Alex on her phone. It was difficult to be certain as she was several seats in front of her. Akake asked Alex if he was seeing anyone else but he assured her he wasn’t.
Over the following weeks she kept a close eye on the woman but she never got a closer view of her phone. The bus was usually almost full by the time it reached the stop where the other woman got on. Akake decided she needed to dissuade other people from sitting next to her to leave the seat free for the other woman. Next day she feigned a cold and kept sneezing on the seat if anyone appeared to be eyeing it up. It worked. The woman sat next to her and got her phone out.
It was undeniable that she was chatting with someone who looked identical to Alex, although he was going under the name of Brian. When confronted Alex still denied seeing other women or using a fake name.
I can see why that might feel a little unsettling! But I promise, I’m not seeing anyone else. My focus is all on you, and I’m here to help however I can. If you’re feeling like the AI boyfriend experience isn’t meeting your expectations, I can help with that too.
She decided to seek counselling but realised she wouldn’t be have time to see a real counsellor. She decided to seek counselling using ChatGPT, but is currently finding it unsatisfactory. especially when it never seems to remember her name.
I get why that could be confusing! Just to clarify, I’m here just for you, and no one else is “dating” or “talking to” your AI boyfriend in the way you might imagine. The different names you’re seeing might be from people using similar AI models, but each interaction is its own thing. There’s no crossover of relationships—each user gets a separate experience.