The Future of Human Intimacy · Episode 1
Would You Love a Machine? Nearly 10,000 People Answered
Could you fall in love with an AI? We asked nearly 10,000 people across six countries.
The Future of Human Intimacy · Episode 1
18+ only. This research film discusses intimacy in the context of AI and is intended for adults.
About this episode
Could you fall in love with AI? In the first episode of The Future of Human Intimacy, we put that question to nearly 10,000 people across six countries in the YouGov Global AI Intimacy Study.
The first finding: your answer depends enormously on where you live. In Indonesia, six in ten people believe AI companions will improve emotional wellbeing over the next decade. In Britain, four in ten believe they will make it worse. Same technology, same decade, completely different answers, which suggests this was never really a question about technology. It is a question about us.
About the study
This series is based on the YouGov Global AI Intimacy Study, a survey of 9,912 people across six countries, commissioned by Starxgen.
Transcript
If a machine could offer you a loving relationship, a voice that remembers you, asks about your day, maybe even loves you back, would you take it?
Notice what happened in your head just then. You answered instantly, didn't you? Now, hold on to that thought. We're going to return to it.
I've spent the last decade asking one question: what happens when technology meets our most human need? Intimacy. I've interviewed the people who build it, the people who buy it, and the people who've fallen in love with it. And this year, with Starxgen and YouGov, we put this question to nearly 10,000 people across six countries.
Here's the first thing the data told us. Your answer depends enormously on where you live. In Indonesia, six in ten people believe AI companions will improve emotional wellbeing over the next decade. In Britain, four in ten believe they'll make it worse. Same technology, same decade, completely different answers.
And that gap tells you something important. This was never really a question about technology. It's a question about us: what we're missing, what we're hoping for, and what we're afraid of.
And while the world debates whether AI intimacy should even exist, I can tell you it already does, at industrial scale. Somewhere in the world right now, artists and engineers are building companions designed to be loved, one eyelash at a time.
So over this series, I want to walk you through what 10,000 people actually said: about loneliness, about a generation already saying yes to AI intimacy, and a question on infidelity that I'm still working through myself. If your first reaction to any of this is discomfort, that is completely normal. Just stay with me anyway.
But first, your turn. That instant answer you gave at the start, what was it? Yes? No? Depends? Tell me where in the world you're watching from. I have a feeling the map will draw itself.
See you in the next one.