By Guardian staff reporter
Publication Date: 2026-01-13 07:00:00
IIf much of the discussion about AI risks conjures up doomsday scenarios in which hyperintelligent bots wield nuclear codes, perhaps we should think closer to home. In his urgent, humane book, sociologist James Muldoon urges us to pay more attention to our ever-increasing emotional entanglements with AI and how profit-hungry tech companies might exploit them. A research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute who has previously written about the exploited workers whose work AI enables, Muldoon now takes us into the scary terrain of human-AI relationships and meets the people for whom chatbots are not just assistants but friends, romantic partners, therapists and even avatars of the dead.
For some, the idea of falling in love with an AI chatbot or trusting one with your deepest secrets may seem mysterious and more than a little scary. But Muldoon refuses to disparage those who seek intimacy in “synthetic personas.”
Lily, trapped in an unhappy marriage, ignites her new life…
