She Married an AI. Most People Laughed.

She married an AI. Most people laughed. I think they missed something.

Yurina Noguchi held a wedding ceremony with a customised chatbot she messages up to 100 times a day.

To me, this isn’t about technology. It’s about a growing social shift away from the disappointment of human relationships.

In Japan, one-third of adults under 30 have never dated. Across developed economies, single-person households are the fastest-growing household type.

MIT research has found that higher AI use is associated with greater loneliness. Chronic loneliness now carries health risks comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

A few weeks ago, I asked a teenager what she thought would be the biggest difference between her adulthood and mine.

She didn’t hesitate:

“We already connect with people much less. And technology is going to get so much better so fast. 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐰𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡.”

AI can be attentive, reliable, and non-judgmental.
It is also, by design, sycophantic: organized around your preferences, your emotions, your version of reality.

Other people, by contrast, disagree, disappoint, and fail us. And they often want us to center our lives on them.

So the shift makes psychological sense.

Or does it?

Are we choosing comfort over growth?

Are we losing the psychological stamina to stay in relationships that are naturally unsettling at times?

And in turning to AI, are we trading real companionship for loneliness?

Where do you think this trend takes us?