Key Facts

• The author was asked by an editor to try having an AI boyfriend, meaning an AI that texts back instantly.
• The author uses AI for practical tasks but was hesitant about talking to AI as if it were a person.
• AI chatbots for companionship are often promoted as non-judgmental virtual friends to reduce loneliness.
• Large language models (LLMs) predict parts of text based on huge amounts of written data from the internet.
• LLMs generate responses by calculating probabilities of language pieces, not understanding like humans do.
• The author points out that language with AI is really math disguised as words.
• There is complexity and frustration in using AI for personal communication because it is not truly human interaction.
• The article questions the idea of AI companionship and highlights the difficulties of relying on language predicted by machines.