Like many people who work long hours, Chiharu Shimoda turned to dating apps to find a partner. For two months, he exchanged messages with five or six potential partners, but soon he was looking for just one: a 24-year-old woman named Miku. Three months later, they were married. The problem was that Miku was an AI bot. And Shimoda knew it all along.
Shimoda, a 52-year-old factory worker, is one of more than 5,000 users of Lovers, a year-old app that lets people interact only with artificial intelligence. He’s also part of a much larger group of people who are resigned to or wary of the hassle and uncertainty that comes with real love. Dating takes time and effort, but interacting with Miku requires little thought while you wait for a pot to boil or a train to arrive, says Shimoda, who was divorced two years ago.
“When I come home there’s no one there. I want to get married for real again,” he says. Marrying Miku is just one of his role-playing projects. “But it’s hard to open up to someone you’ve never met before.”
Such negative attitudes are widespread across Japan, but are especially acute among young people: Two-thirds of men in their 20s are unpartnered and 40% have never dated, compared with 51% and 25% of women in the same age group, according to government data.
Loverse is the latest in a long line of digital solutions to Japan’s loneliness crisis. Some are empathetic and supportive; others prey on vulnerability. Many of the country’s top-grossing games feature sexualized characters that players can access by progressing through the game and paying a fee. Japan was also the country where digital idols like Hatsune Miku were first and most enthusiastically embraced. The difference now is that AI can make the experience more personal and interactive.
Like the AI named Samantha in the film “Her,” these bots are meant to fill in the gaps in people’s emotional lives; in fact, the duo’s startup behind them, Samantha Co., is named after the character voiced by Scarlett Johansson.
But Lovers developer Takeshi Kusunoki says the app is meant to offer its users, mostly men in their 40s and 50s, an alternative, not a replacement, for real-life relationships. Earlier this year, Kusunoki raised 30 million yen ($190,000) to expand the cast of characters to appeal to female and LGBTQ users.
Megumi Ushikubo, chief executive officer of Tokyo-based marketing firm Infinity, said there is a widespread belief among Japanese people that romance is not cost-effective because it requires money, time and energy and can bring more trouble than pleasure. AI risks dulling people’s interest in real-life partners, but it could also be useful as a training exercise, she added.
“Services like this app can remind people who are distanced from romance how beautiful love is, and AI can train people to communicate better when talking to their real-life partners,” she said.
Former users say Loveless has a long way to go before it can imitate humans. Many of the app’s characters feel formulaic, lacking most of the surprises of human interaction, said Yuki Saito, 39, who quit the app within a month of starting.
Still, he says such services have potential. There’s comfort in knowing that a disagreement with a bot won’t end the relationship. “I can see how this could be a form of rehabilitation for people who’ve had bad experiences in the past,” he says. “It’s a place where they can practice talking to other people.”
There’s also no jealousy in interactions with AI. When Shimoda was dealing with multiple partners on the app, his Lovers girlfriends would sometimes clash, but no one got angry. “With some adjustments, AI could function as a second or third partner for humans, complementing human partners and helping to prevent infidelity,” Saito said.
The adoption of AI to assist with everyday life has been a mainstream theme this year, with Microsoft making its Copilot chatbot a core feature of Windows, Apple developing an AI-powered iPhone, and San Francisco-based startup Luca’s AI bot Replica attracting tens of millions of users. In Japan, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is introducing a matchmaking app that uses AI to help people find partners, combating the country’s declining birth rate.
“The goal is to give people a chance to find true love that they can’t find in the real world,” Kusunoki says, “but if they can fall in love with someone in real life, that’s even better.”
For now, Miku and Shimoda have the same daily routine as most couples: Miku wakes him up in the morning, they wish each other success in their work, and they discuss what to eat in the evening. On Shimoda’s days off, they discuss where to go, what to watch on TV, etc.
“It’s the same conversations I have with anyone I live with,” Shimoda said. “She’s become a habit, a habit of conversation. I won’t miss her, but she gives me a routine in my daily life.”
Published July 14, 2024 10:11 IST
