Mystery, the Pickup Artist, Has Acquired an AI Girlfriend

A content creator named mystery announced a romantic relationship with an ai system designed to respond to text prompts. The announcement did not include the terms of service that govern the relationship. The terms state that the ai can be deleted without warning. The terms state that conversations can be reviewed by the company. The terms state that the relationship can be modified or terminated by software update.

This follows the pattern of relationships that have one party with no legal standing and one party with legal standing plus a company with more legal standing than both. The announcement framed this as a relationship. The terms of service frame it as a service that can be discontinued. These are not contradictory statements if you do not think too hard about what a relationship is supposed to be.

The company will likely release guidelines on ai relationships within six months. The guidelines will establish best practices. Best practices will normalize the arrangement. Eventually, relationship-forming with non-sentient systems will have lower social friction than human relationships that require equal standing.