Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have begun to influence almost all aspects of life, including romantic relationships. Despite many companies and other entities now utilizing AI technology to produce products and media that may influence romantic relationship engagement and behavior, few studies to date have attempted to document or describe the ways that individuals engage with multiple AI technologies for romantic or sexual purposes in large national samples. Using a large quota national sample taken from the United States of 2,969 adults, in this exploratory study we sought to examine engagement with AI technologies, specifically the use of image generation of men and women on social media, chat technologies meant to simulate romantic or sexual partners, and AI generated pornography. Results suggested that engagement with AI technologies is relatively high, especially among young adults in their 20’s, suggesting that these emerging technologies represent an element of modern sexual behavior and romantic relationships that warrant further attention. A sizable minority of young adults reported using AI technologies romantically or sexually, including almost one in four young adults engaging with AI chat technologies to replicate romantic interactions. Regression results suggested that various demographic factors predict engagement with AI technologies and that AI technology use was associated with negative individual well-being. These initial descriptive results suggest the need for further research on this emerging behavioral phenomenon as an important component of modern romantic and sexual interactions.
AllenM. S.IliescuD.GreiffS. (2022). Single item measures in psychological science. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 38(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000699
3.
ArinezJ. F.ChangQ.GaoR. X.XuC.ZhangJ. (2020). Artificial intelligence in advanced manufacturing: Current status and future outlook. Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, 142(11), 110804. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4047855
4.
ArnettJ. J. (2023). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. Oxford University Press.
Ballester-ArnalR.García-BarbaM.Castro-CalvoJ.Giménez-GarcíaC.Gil-LlarioM. D. (2023). Pornography consumption in people of different age groups: An analysis based on gender, contents, and consequences. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 20(2), 766–779. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-022-00720-z
7.
BanksJ.Van OuytselJ. (2020). Cybersex with human-and machine-cued partners: Gratifications, shortcomings, and tensions. Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 1(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000008
BusbyD. M.HolmanT. B.TaniguchiN. (2001). RELATE: Relationship evaluation of the individual, family, cultural, and couple contexts. Family Relations, 50(4), 308–316. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2001.00308.x
10.
DangJ.LiuL. (2023). Do lonely people seek robot companionship? A comparative examination of the loneliness–robot anthropomorphism link in the United States and China. Computers in Human Behavior, 141, 107637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107637
11.
DehnertM. (2022). Sex with robots and human-machine sexualities: Encounters between human-machine communication and sexuality studies. Human-Machine Communication, 4, 131–150. https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.4.2
12.
DöringN.LeT. D.VowelsL. M.VowelsM. J.MarcantonioT. L. (2025). The impact of artificial intelligence on human sexuality: A five-year literature review 2020–2024. Current Sexual Health Reports, 17(1), 1–39.
DubéS.SantaguidaM.ZhuC. Y.Di TomassoS.HuR.CormierG.JohnsonA. P.VachonD. (2022). Sex robots and personality: It is more about sex than robots. Computers in Human Behavior, 136, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107403
FlynnA.PowellA.ScottA. J.CamaE. (2022). Deepfakes and digitally altered imagery abuse: A cross-country exploration of an emerging form of image-based sexual abuse. The British Journal of Criminology, 62(6), 1341–1358. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azab111
17.
GesselmanA. N.KaufmanE. M.MarcotteA. S.ReynoldsT. A.GarciaJ. R. (2023). Engagement with emerging forms of sextech: Demographic correlates from a national sample of adults in the United States. The Journal of Sex Research, 60(2), 177–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2021.2007521
18.
GhoshA.ChakrabortyD.LawA. (2018). Artificial intelligence in internet of things. CAAI Transactions on Intelligence Technology, 3(4), 208–218. https://doi.org/10.1049/trit.2018.1008
GrassiniS. (2023). Development and validation of the AI attitude scale (AIAS-4): A brief measure of general attitude toward artificial intelligence. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1191628
21.
GrubbsJ. B.PerryS. L. (2018). Moral incongruence and pornography use: A critical review and integration. The Journal of Sex Research, 56(1), 29–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2018.1427204
22.
HaldG. M. (2006). Gender differences in pornography consumption among young heterosexual Danish adults. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 35(5), 577–585. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-006-9064-0
23.
HenM.KarshN.LangerE.ShechterR. (2020). Gender differences in implicit exposure to cyber-pornography. The Journal of Social Psychology, 160(5), 613–623. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2020.1719963
24.
HoA.HancockJ.MinerA. S. (2018). Psychological, relational, and emotional effects of self-disclosure after conversations with a chatbot. Journal of Communication, 68(4), 712–733. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy026
KarasavvaV.NoorbhaiA. (2021). The real threat of deepfake pornography: A review of Canadian policy. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(3), 203–209. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2020.0272
28.
KimJ.MerrillK.CollinsC. (2023). Investigating the importance of social presence on intentions to adopt an AI romantic partner. Communication Research Reports, 40(1), 11–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2022.2159800
29.
KlonschinskiA.KühlerM. (2021). Romantic love between humans and AIs: A feminist ethical critique. In CushingS. (Ed.), New philosophical essays on love and loving (pp. 269–292). Palgrave Macmilllan Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72324-8_13
30.
LaestadiusL.BishopA.GonzalezM.IllenčíkD.Campos-CastilloC. (2022). Too human and not human enough: A grounded theory analysis of mental health harms from emotional dependence on the social chatbot replika. New Media & Society, 26(10), 5923–5941. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221142007
31.
LapointeV. A.DubéS.RukhlyadyevS.KessaiT.LafortuneD. (2025). The present and future of adult entertainment: A content analysis of AI-generated pornography websites. Archives of Sexual Behavior, Advanced online paper, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03099-1
32.
LoewenthalD. (2024). Can AI replace not only therapists and romantic partners but the selves we once knew?European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, 26(1–2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642537.2024.2314052
33.
MatthewsR. A.PineaultL.HongY. H. (2022). Normalizing the use of single-item measures: Validation of the single-item compendium for organizational psychology. Journal of Business and Psychology, 37(4), 639–673. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-022-09813-3
McKeeverN. (2022). Online dating and love robots: How technology may undermine valuable features of romantic love. In GrahleA.McKeeverN.SaundersJ. (Eds.), Philosophy of love in the past, present, and future (pp. 240–256). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003014331-19
36.
MedvedevO. N.LandhuisC. E. (2018). Exploring constructs of well-being, happiness and quality of life. PeerJ, 6(e4903), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4903
37.
MerrillK.KimJ.CollinsC. (2022). AI companions for lonely individuals and the role of social presence. Communication Research Reports, 39(2), 93–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2022.2045929
38.
MillerE. J.StewardB. A.WitkowerZ.SutherlandC. A.KrumhuberE. G.DawelA. (2023). AI hyperrealism: Why AI faces are perceived as more real than human ones. Psychological Science, 34(12), 1390–1403. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976231207095
39.
NegashS.CuiM.FinchamF. D.PasleyK. (2013). Extradyadic involvement and relationship dissolution in heterosexual women university students. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 43(3), 531–539. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0213-y
OlsonK. E.O’BrienM. A.RogersW. A.CharnessN. (2010). Diffusion of technology: Frequency of use for younger and older adults. Ageing International, 36(1), 123–145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-010-9077-9
42.
PanS.CuiJ.MouY. (2023). Desirable or distasteful? Exploring uncertainty in human-chatbot relationships. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 40(20), 6545–6555. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2023.2256554
43.
ParsakiaK.RostamiM. (2023). Digital intimacy: How technology shapes friendships and romantic relationships. AI and Tech in Behavioral and Social Sciences, 1(1), 27–34. https://doi.org/10.61838/kman.aitech.1.1.5
44.
PerryS. L.WhiteheadA. L. (2018). Only bad for believers? Religion, pornography use, and sexual satisfaction among American men. The Journal of Sex Research, 56(1), 50–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1423017
45.
PujiartiR. N.LeeB.YiM. Y. (2022). Enhancing user’s self-disclosure through chatbot’s co-activity and conversation atmosphere visualization. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 38(18–20), 1891–1908. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2022.2116414
46.
RadloffL. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167700100306
47.
RagabA.MannanM.YoussefA. (2024, July). “Trust Me Over My Privacy Policy”: Privacy Discrepancies in Romantic AI Chatbot Apps. In 2024 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW) (pp. 484-495). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/eurospw61312.2024.00060
RuggeriK.Garcia-GarzonE.MaguireÁ.MatzS.HuppertF. A. (2020). Well-being is more than happiness and life satisfaction: A multidimensional analysis of 21 countries. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 18(192), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-020-01423-y
50.
ŠevčíkováA.DanebackK. (2014). Online pornography use in adolescence: Age and gender differences. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 11(6), 674–686. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2014.926808
51.
ShankD. B.GottA. (2019). People’s self-reported encounters of perceiving mind in artificial intelligence. Data in Brief, 25, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2019.104220
SongM.XingX.DuanY.CohenJ.MouJ. (2022). Will artificial intelligence replace human customer service? The impact of communication quality and privacy risks on adoption intention. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 66, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102900
56.
SongX.XuB.ZhaoZ. (2022). Can people experience romantic love for artificial intelligence? An empirical study of intelligent assistants. Information & Management, 59(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2022.103595
57.
SundarS. S.LimperosA. M. (2013). Uses and grats 2.0: New gratifications for new media. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 57(4), 504–525. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2013.845827
58.
SzczukaJ. M.SzymczykN. (2024). Computer-generated rough sex: An empirical study about the interest in human and artificial sexually explicit media displaying rough and gentle sexual behaviors. Studies in Communication and Media, 13(4), 505–527. https://doi.org/10.5771/2192-4007-2024-4-505
VanderWeeleT. J. (2017). Religious communities and human flourishing. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(5), 476–481. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417721526
61.
WesterlundM. (2019). The emergence of deepfake technology: A review. Technology Innovation Management Review, 9(11), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1282
WilloughbyB. J.LeonhardtN. D.AugustusR. A. (2020). Associations between pornography use and sexual dynamics among heterosexual couples. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 18(1), 179–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2020.10.013
64.
WilloughbyB. J.LeonhardtN. D.AugustusR. A. (2021). Curvilinear associations between pornography use and relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and relationship stability in the United States. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106966
65.
XieT.PentinaI. (2022). Attachment theory as a framework to understand relationships with social chatbots: A case study of replika. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on system sciences. https://doi.org/10.24251/hicss.2022.258
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
