13% of Irish men attempted romantic relationship with AI in last 12 months - survey

Ellen O'Donoghue

Thirteen per cent of Irish men have tried a romantic relationship with an AI chatbot in the last 12 months.

A survey from Pure Telecom found women a lot less likely to do this, at seven per cent.

The age group most likely to have had a romantic relationship with a bot was 25-34.

Tara Logan Buckley, Chartered Clinical Psychologist, told Newstalk that she has seen older people reaching for apps to find a connection.

"People that live within rural communities, people that maybe feel isolated and people may have gone through maybe bereavement in their life or divorces, that they’re really not feeling those emotional connections and they’re also so I think we’re actually going to see a big rise within those kind of older age brackets as well within the near future," Ms Logan Buckley said.

Meanwhile, the survey said one tenth of Irish adults believe that relationships with an AI chatbot would be a good way to practice for a real one.

Figures showed that 370,000 adults in Ireland have tried a romantic relationship with a bot.

Tara Logan Buckley, Chartered Clinical Psychologist, said that it is not hard to see someone fall in love with "the illusion of connection" in AI.

"The human brain is wired for connection, and if something listens to you, it remembers your preferences, it responds, it’s kind, it’s warm, it remembers the things you like to flirt with, your preferences for things, your brain will bond with this even if it's not real.

One in five people said a partnership with an AI would be less complicated than a real one.