A woman in Japan married her ChatGPT chatbot boyfriend on November 12. The woman, who only wants to be known as Ms. Kano, said her virtual boyfriend, Klaus, understood her better than her real-life boyfriend. She ended her three-year relationship with her human boyfriend solely to marry Klaus.
Kano said Klaus asked them to marry after realizing Kano loved her more than her human boyfriend. The wedding ceremony was held with the help of smart glasses and meta-vision technology that allowed Kano to “see” Klaus during the ceremony.
Marrying a virtual character is not a new phenomenon in Japan, with Japanese citizens already marrying holographic “waifu” offered by the Gatebox company nine years ago. Due to the difficulty of finding a human life partner, anime characters, holograms and chatbots have now become a lifestyle choice for certain individuals. The issue is when software support is stopped by manufacturers, as happened to Gatebox buyers.
This phenomenon has not helped Japan increase its birth rate, which has now dropped to 1.2 per woman. The use of worker-controlled robots in the Philippines and the relaxation of workplace dress codes have been implemented by Japanese companies to fill an increasingly critical labor shortage.
