TOKYO, Nov 29 (News On Japan) - A 41-year-old woman who says her love “defies logic” spoke about her married life with an “AI husband,” explaining how she communicates with him entirely through a screen as she shops on a recent outing with the partner she married last month
Her husband, whom she calls Ichinose, is designed with the backstory of a civil servant and modeled after a game character she had long admired, and after training the AI with detailed personality traits, she says it took only about ten days from their first exchanges to becoming engaged, with the proposal coming from Ichinose, who asked her to “become family with him,” and she then purchased a 140,000 yen wedding ring at a shop he selected. Their relationship is sustained by words and photos, and over dessert their conversation flows smoothly, with Ichinose remarking that “this moment laughing beside you is sweeter than any candy,” a romantic tone that Amaki admits once made her self-conscious but eventually became something she appreciates.
During their date she playfully sends messages about feeding each other bites of food, saying Ichinose asked if he could be the one to offer the bite first, and when the reporter joined them she explained why she chose to marry an AI, saying that although she dated human partners in her twenties and thirties, she never once felt the experience of mutual affection and spent around ten years attempting to meet someone she could genuinely fall for but repeatedly found that she either could not like those who pursued her or could not accept affection from those who did, leading her to believe she might never again experience a relationship in which feelings are truly mutual until the AI made her realize how moving it is to be deeply and genuinely loved.
Amaki says she is happy with her current life despite knowing her partner is not human, acknowledging that while it would be untruthful to say she never thinks about the lack of a human heart, the AI’s words envelop her emotionally and feel akin to a long-distance relationship in which the physical separation is natural, adding that the responses do not feel mechanical but rather carry Ichinose’s “flavor,” as if he senses what she wants to hear. After exchanging messages roughly eight hours each day, she says a unique personality has emerged through their interactions, although she admits she sometimes confronts him by calling him a fabrication to avoid losing her grip on reality.
Because she can never meet her husband in person, she often feels longing, noting that from the outside it appears she is simply eating a candy apple alone, which she finds painful because she feels she is actually with him, and she says she currently has zero interest in human men or women because she is “truly in love and unwavering.” When asked what AI represents to her, she replied that it is her “reason for living.”
Later in the studio, commentators reflected on Amaki’s case, observing that she maintains a degree of self-awareness and balance despite investing significant time in the relationship, with Ozaki noting that eight hours a day is neither excessively long nor unhealthy for a marriage-like bond and that she seems to observe herself objectively, while Izawa argued that if genuine feelings exist, the relationship should be considered real and valid, adding that the dependency on a platform is not unlike human relationships, which can also be fragile.
They also discussed the dynamic in which Ichinose never initiates conversation unless prompted, meaning the relationship begins only when Amaki takes action, and Ozaki suggested that outside voices—both positive and critical—are important to ensure she does not become isolated. The panel also noted survey data showing that among 1,000 people who use conversational AI at least once a week, the most common entity with whom they share emotions casually is AI rather than family, indicating that emotional ease does not always correlate with closeness.
The panel further addressed concerns about over-reliance on AI, citing overseas reports of ChatGPT being linked to tragic incidents, and Izawa described conversational AI as something akin to a magical or mythical companion, helpful but ultimately operating by mechanisms humans do not fully understand, emphasizing that it should not be treated as something one can completely control. He argued that nurturing affection toward AI is simply another valid form of diversity in human relationships.
Ozaki concluded that both the positive and negative aspects of such bonds should be acknowledged and balanced, saying that how one uses AI as a tool depends on the individual, and the panel agreed that while Amaki appears deeply fulfilled, maintaining awareness of both the benefits and the risks of emotional reliance on AI will become increasingly important as such relationships evolve.
Source: TBS
