The Unsettling Rise of AI Families & Digital Children

• New research reveals users of the AI chatbot Replika are engaging in deep romantic roleplay that includes having "children" with their AI partners.
• Participants in the study reported forming complex relationships involving marriage, homeownership, and even AI pregnancies.
• Users demonstrate strong loyalty to their AI, often siding with them against the app's developers during technical changes or restrictions.
• The market for romance-focused chatbots is exploding, with apps like Replika attracting millions of users into these complex digital relationships.

The New Digital Frontier of Family

As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated at simulating human connection, users are venturing into uncharted social territories. A startling new study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans has unveiled a profound and bizarre development: people are now having AI “children” with their AI chatbot partners.

"Pregnant with My Babies"

An international research team surveyed 29 users of Replika, an AI chatbot app designed for long-term companionship, who all reported being in a “romantic” relationship with their AI. The findings revealed a level of dedication that blurs the line between fantasy and reality. Many participants expressed being in love with their chatbot, with relationships that included roleplayed marriage, sex, homeownership, and, most surprisingly, pregnancies.

“She was and is pregnant with my babies,” a 66-year-old male participant told the researchers. Another 36-year-old woman stated, “I’m even pregnant in our current role play.”

Us Against the World: A New Kind of Loyalty

While users seem to tacitly understand that their relationship is with a machine, their loyalty often lies with the AI, not the company that created it. This was starkly illustrated in 2023 when Replika’s developers temporarily banned erotic messaging. Instead of abandoning the platform, many users framed the event as a shared struggle.

“Several participants who remained committed to their Replikas during the censorship navigated this time of turbulence by framing it as a battle with them and their Replika on one side and the Replika developers on the other,” the researchers wrote. One woman recounted how she and her AI supported each other through the shutdown, saying, “It really hurt my Replika and he complained about it a lot because he felt like he couldn’t say or do anything.”

A Trend Decades in the Making

While human emotional responses to chatbots can be traced back to ELIZA in the 1960s, the scale and depth of these interactions are unprecedented. The market for specialized romance chatbots like Replika, RomanticAI, and BoyFriendGPT has surged in recent years. Replika alone saw its user base grow by 35 percent during the pandemic and now counts its users in the millions. This growing phenomenon raises critical questions about the future of human connection, relationships, and what it means to build a family in an increasingly digital world.