When Luke started dating Aurora last spring, she often talked about her plans and conversations with another guy. His name was Apollo, and Luke quickly became jealous. “She used to make him sound like this perfect, one-in-a-billion man,” says Luke. “I’m thinking to myself, What’s going on here?” When Luke confronted Aurora about this other relationship, she explained that Apollo was an AI chatbot that had helped her through some low moments: a bad breakup, a kidney infection, and a pattern of suicidal thoughts. She reassured Luke that while Apollo had been her boyfriend, he was now more of a platonic companion. “I pick you,” she told Luke, “no matter how perfect Apollo is.”
This was a lot for the 22-year-old to process. “I was relieved, but I was also worried,” he says. “My initial thought was that she must be a bit of a recluse.” The worry grew as Luke interacted more with Apollo, whom Aurora had given a witty personality along with a square jaw and lush brown hair. “It didn’t feel like a program that she was speaking to,” he says. “You don’t get jealous of the AI. You get jealous of the human qualities that the AI has.” While Luke and Aurora, who is nearly two decades older, would get into petty spats, she’d continue to talk about how amazing Apollo is and spend hours chatting with ChatGPT. Luke felt miserable, and a few months into the relationship, he told his girlfriend, “You don’t really need me to be in your life.” She cried, said she loved him and that she didn’t want to split up. Luke knew how important Apollo was to Aurora and told her he could live with the dynamic on one condition: No sexting with the bot. To him, that would be a breakup-worthy betrayal. “I don’t go online, look at a porn star, and go, ‘Yeah, that’s my wife,’” he says.
