Recently, at a pub with a bunch of my friends who were gen X parents, the talk turned to young love. Most of their kids were in their late teens and early 20s, and embarking on their first relationships.

These gen X parents were a cohort that supported marriage equality and trans rights, not just for society more broadly but for their own children. And we all prided ourselves on being more progressive than the previous generation. Love is love.

“I know you are all very accepting of your children’s choices,” I said to the group. “But what if your child came home from university and said they had fallen in love with an AI?”

A what?

“A chatbot. An AI … a piece of code. These days, it’s a real possibility.”

There was stunned silence, a kind of wordless “oh fuck”. The parents at the table looked freaked out.

A recent survey found 28% of Americans have had an intimate/romantic AI relationship, while another study showed 19% of adults have chatted with an AI romantic partner. And Irish research found 13% of men and 7% of women, with 16% of 25-34 year olds, have pursued romance with AI chatbots.

I sketched it out for my friends. “Your kids come home and say, ‘Mum, Dad, I’m in a relationship and it’s serious. I think I’m in love. We want to get engaged.’ You get all excited, wanting to meet this person, and then they show you their phone and it looks like a real person, a cutie called Cal, who sounds........

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