AI relationships are on the rise. The divorce boom could be next

Rebecca Palmer is not Psychologically, but as a divorce attorney she can often see what comes next.

For many people today, as artificial intelligence saturates every aspect of life — from work to therapy — the romantic appeal of AI is tantalizing. Chatbots are reliable, can provide emotional support, and, more often than not, will never fight with you. But for couples navigating a long-term commitment, romance in chatbots also presents a new problem. Love has never been easy, but couples whose emotional needs aren’t met are “the most vulnerable to AI’s influences and behaviors,” Palmer says. “Especially if the marriage is already suffering.”

Reddit is full of stories of people who say AI has created a rift in their relationships. One woman decided to end her 14-year marriage after discovering that her husband — who she believed was having a real relationship with a woman he described as his “sexy Latina babe” — had spent thousands of dollars on a OnePay credit card and an artificial intelligence app “designed to imitate underage girls.”

In June, WIRED reported on the intertwined future of chatbot love. This story followed Eva, a 46-year-old writer and editor from New York, who, after becoming too attached to her AI companions — she admitted they “became difficult to ignore” — ended her relationship with her human partner after they agreed that she felt she was cheating on him.

As chatbot relationships become more common, causing permanent rifts in relationships, a new legal frontier is emerging in family law that is rewriting the rules of marital misconduct: an AI relationship is now grounds for divorce.

For some people, there’s a growing belief that AI romances should be treated like human relationships, especially as more and more adults say they prefer that, according to the Institute for Family Studies. About 60% of singles now say AI relationships are a form of cheating, according to two recent polls conducted by Clarity Check and the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University.

“The law is still evolving along with these experiences. But some people think it’s a real relationship, and sometimes better than a relationship with someone,” says Palmer, whose Orlando-based firm has worked with couples who got or are going through a divorce because their partner cheated using AI. Palmer declined to discuss any detailed information due to client confidentiality, but said one of her current cases involved spending money and sharing private information — such as bank accounts, Social Security numbers and birth information — with a chatbot, which was “consuming a spouse’s life and affecting job performance.”

Increasingly, courts are beginning to see clients point to emotional connections with AI companions as reasons for marital tension or separation. Although legal classifications of AI still vary from state to state in family law matters, Palmer adds that laws classifying AI as a “third party, not a person” are rapidly approaching in progressive states like California. She does not expect courts to legally recognize AI companions as persons — debates over AI personhood have been ongoing for as long as the technology has been around — but they may be recognized as “cause” for entitlement to divorce.