TrendPulse|The surprising case for AI boyfriends

The TrendPulseAI revolution has come for our love lives. Millions around the world are now in relationships with chatbots who can text, sext and – for a fee – talk to you on the phone and have 'in-person' interactions via augmented reality. Host Brittany Luse tries the AI companion app Replika for herself – and discusses the experience with The Cut's Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz, who's spent the past year covering tech and dating. They talk about the surprising market that Replika has found and whether relationships with AI chatbots will become more common. Finally, they play a new game called 'Boyfriend... or Bot?'

This episode was produced by Jessica Mendoza. It was edited by Jessica Placzek. Engineering support came from Patrick Murray. Our executive producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sangweni and our senior VP of programming is Anya Grundmann.