Does flirting with AI count? Many young adults have already had intimate chatbot talks

Whether romantic or sexual conversations with a chatbot count as experience with a partner is now openly debated among young adults. On 27 October, VICE reported on a survey by Joi AI, a company that itself offers AI companions, of 1,500 adult members of Generation Z. According to the survey, 26 percent had already had a romantic or sexual conversation with an AI – 28 percent of men and 25 percent of women, and as many as 31 percent of men aged 25 to 29. Of those who had already exchanged intimate messages with a chatbot, 16 percent said it should count as a sexual partner, compared with just 3 percent of the rest. Only 5 percent of those with experience felt such an encounter could count as losing their virginity.

Respondents were divided on infidelity: 36 percent of women but only 19 percent of men said a partner's intimate AI conversations would bother them as much as cheating. Among those with no experience of it, 45 percent called it cheating, compared with 28 percent of those with experience. About a third of those with experience said partners should disclose how many AI companions they had been involved with. Important context: the survey comes from a company that profits from AI companionship, and the report gives no details of how participants were selected – the figures should therefore not be taken as representative.

An independent survey shows that AI already plays a role in many people's emotional lives: for Elon University's Imagining the Digital Future Center in the US, YouGov polled 4,268 adult US internet users in May 2026. Around 27 percent had significant emotional or social interactions with AI language models. Of these users, 9 percent had at some point used AI for sexual chat or role-play, and 38 percent found AI advice on problems in romantic or sexual relationships very or moderately helpful. Centre director Lee Rainie called such relationships 'harbingers of a future in which many more people will likely have these kinds of relationships'.