How AI Is Secretly Wrecking Modern Relationships

The New Digital Wedge in Relationships

An unsettling new trend reveals that AI, specifically ChatGPT, is becoming a disruptive force in intimate partnerships. Accounts are surfacing from individuals who have seen their relationships deteriorate, citing the chatbot as a key factor. These stories describe partners turning to the AI for relationship advice, only to become emotionally distant. In other cases, spouses have weaponized the chatbot's outputs during arguments, creating a new and impersonal layer of conflict. A particularly bleak development is the replacement of genuine, personal communication with AI-generated messages about feelings, leaving loved ones feeling disconnected and alienated.

A Case Study in AI-Fueled Separation

One husband shared a harrowing experience of his once-healthy marriage collapsing abruptly over just a few days. The catalyst, he believes, was his wife's sudden and intense reliance on ChatGPT. After he moved out of their home, he began receiving strange, AI-generated messages from her. These texts used an unfamiliar mix of spiritual and therapeutic language to paint a picture of him and their marriage that he found completely unrecognizable. His initial reaction was to wonder if she had joined a cult.

The couple is now in the process of divorcing and is involved in a custody battle. The man’s soon-to-be ex-wife now communicates with him almost exclusively through these peculiar-sounding, ChatGPT-generated texts, covering everything from legal matters to co-parenting.

Further Reading on AI's Societal Impact

• ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners: An in-depth look by Maggie Harrison Dupré for Futurism.
• Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens.: An analysis from The New York Times on the psychological spirals of AI.
• What Happened When I Tried to Replace Myself with ChatGPT in My English Classroom: A teacher's experiment reported in Literary Hub.
• What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?: Hua Hsu discusses the future of education in The New Yorker.
• Teachers Are Not OK: A report from 404 Media on the impact of AI on teaching professionals.
• Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College: An investigation by New York magazine into academic integrity in the age of ChatGPT.