As if stealing our data, copyrighted material including books, music, and films, and quite possibly many of our jobs, was not enough, AI seems to be increasingly stealing our hearts as well. Recent surveys have found that almost a quarter of Americans have engaged in romantic interactions with AI chatbots, while, according to another survey, almost ten percent of adults in Ireland have had a romantic relationship with an AI chatbot within the last year. There have even been cases of people marrying their AI chatbots and wanting to have children with them. Rather than simply being an innocent, no-harm-no-foul type of phenomenon, romantic “relationships” with chatbots point to several issues. The first I want to highlight is the high level of isolation and loneliness leading someone to turn to chatbots for friendship, companionship, and an attempt at love. For surely, in a society not teeming with loneliness and alienation, it would be obvious that real connection and relationships could never be replaced, nor indeed even imitated by, a chatbot. In such a world, there …