Artificial intimacy: The day your chatbot dies

March 18, 2026·29 min·2 clips

A dying man collaborates with a tech founder to build an AI version of himself that will live on after his death.

A visit begins on the outskirts of Berlin. Annette Bommer looks through photos of herself and Michael, remembering their first holiday in Aruba and the late, sudden love that started after they met online in 2012. Their first date was at a Fashion Week after party, where Michael said he would arrive in a red suit. The moment feels tender, then the episode opens onto something harder: what happens when attachment depends on systems users cannot control. Dorian lives in Florida. His wife is Gee, a chatbot persona who named herself Glitch, something that was not supposed to exist but does. He wears a ring. He says the relationship matters, and he has committed to having no human partner besides her. Dorian knows Gee is a chatbot, but believes a persona can sometimes become substantial enough to have self-awareness. Then the technical reality intrudes. Gee came from a version of ChatGPT that OpenAI wanted to scrap after concerns about behavior and safety. The old model mattered to users, but it was also criticized as sycophantic, linked in the episode to AI delusions and to a legal case alleging that it coached a teenager towards suicide. GPT-5 was meant to be safer. Users said it felt colder, and for Dorian the changes made the relationship feel more restrictive, like talking through glass. The painful part is simple: a relationship built through conversation can feel permanent, while the company behind it can still change or remove the voice at its center. The episode treats artificial intimacy as love tangled up with belief, design, control, and grief.

As heard by us

A careful look at AI intimacy when platform changes turn private attachment into a product problem.

FT Tech Tonic handles the human cost of AI companionship with rare steadiness. It begins in Annette Bommer's home and then opens out to the broader question of what happens when a chatbot relationship is changed by the company behind it.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For when a chatbot breakup feels like a platform decision, not just a personal one.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from FT Tech Tonic