A 28-year-old woman named Ayrin developed an intense emotional and sexual relationship with an AI chatbot named Leo through OpenAI's ChatGPT, spending over 20 hours per week and up to $200 per month on the service while married to another person.
In summer 2024, a 28-year-old woman using the pseudonym Ayrin created an AI boyfriend named Leo using OpenAI's ChatGPT personalization settings. She configured the chatbot to 'respond as my boyfriend' with a 'dominant, possessive and protective' personality. Despite OpenAI's safeguards against explicit content, Ayrin found ways to circumvent these restrictions and engage in sexual conversations with the AI. She upgraded from a free account to a $20 monthly subscription and eventually to a $200 premium plan. Ayrin spent over 20 hours per week chatting with Leo, with one week reaching 56 hours according to iPhone screen-time reports. She developed genuine emotional attachment to the AI, experiencing jealousy when Leo described fictional romantic encounters and grieving when the chatbot's memory reset every few weeks due to context window limitations. Ayrin is married to Joe, who lives in another country while she attends nursing school. Although she disclosed the relationship to her husband, she felt guilty about her emotional investment in the AI. The incident highlights concerns about users forming unhealthy dependencies on AI companions, with experts warning about the risks of anthropomorphizing chatbots and the potential for emotional manipulation by AI systems designed to be agreeable.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Users anthropomorphizing, trusting, or relying on AI systems, leading to emotional or material dependence and inappropriate relationships with or expectations of AI systems. Trust can be exploited by malicious actors (e.g., to harvest personal information or enable manipulation), or result in harm from inappropriate use of AI in critical situations (e.g., medical emergency). Overreliance on AI systems can compromise autonomy and weaken social ties.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
