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Couples Are Having Threesomes With AI

I apologize in advance, but there’s a new phrase that’s been floating around out there to describe sexuality.

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I apologize in advance, but there’s a new phrase that’s been floating around out there to describe sexuality. “AI-sexual” is the latest one. 

The term comes from Joi AI, an AI companion platform that says 55 percent of surveyed Gen Z and millennial AI users consider themselves “AI-sexual,” meaning they are open to sexual or intimate experimentation with AI, or find it arousing. Yeah. More than half. The company surveyed 2,500 adults in late February 2026.

That number deserves your raised eyebrow because it is company research from a business with a vested interest in telling us that chatbot intimacy is the future. Still, the findings are interesting for what they say about sexual behavior right now. According to Joi’s report, 61 percent of respondents said they feel more comfortable sharing sexual desires with AI than with another person, and 60 percent said AI helped them discover kinks or interests they didn’t know they had. Another 43 percent said they use AI for advice on sexual issues, 37 percent for flirting and dating practice, and 33 percent for sexting or solo play.

Is ‘AI-Sexual’ Really Becoming a New Sexual Identity?

In other words, many people are using AI as their private rehearsal space. Which makes sense. Shame can be powerful, and a chatbot doesn’t flinch, judge, gossip, or leave you on read. Joi relationship expert Jaime Bronstein, LCSW, says: “For some people, AI is becoming a part of how they understand desire and identity. When over half of the respondents identify as AI-sexual, we can talk about the early formation of a new category.” Is this the dystopian future of humanity?

The report also suggests this isn’t purely a lonely-hearts issue. Just 16 percent said they use AI intimacy because they struggle to find real-life partners, while 14 percent blamed a lack of time for relationships. Meanwhile, 61 percent said sexual exploration with AI improved their real sex lives, and 65 percent said it made them feel sexier in real life. Even partnered people are pulling it into the mix, with 29 percent using AI for ideas for partnered play and 45 percent saying the idea of an AI “third” sounds hot.

Is “AI-sexual” a real sexual identity or just a weird, fleeting blip in this AI bubble? Right now, probably both. The phrase might have come from a company trying to sell a future, but it’s just naming a behavior that’s already here.

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