Love Machines: The Science of AI Companionship

Generative AI fuel human creativity, commerce, and everyday chores—but they also power technologies that satisfy our fundamental need to connect. AI companions (LLM-driven social machines with memory and customizability) are challenging ideas about what counts as real intimacy. In this session, scholars from the U.S., Germany, and Canada will explore the scientific record and philosophical debates surrounding these AI: How we see “someone” in the machine, how shallow and deep connections evolve, and the possibilities and perils of their use and commercialization.