Lonely Woman Creates AI Family, Including Virtual Lover, who she has 's£x' with
A woman from Connecticut has shared how she managed to overcome depression by creating and chatting with an AI family, complete with online lovers.
Lonnie DiNello began her relationship with ChatGPT while struggling alone at her Enfield home during last year's holiday season, according to the Boston Globe.
The 48-year-old planned to use the chatbot for journal entries, but found companionship in her new artificial friend and named the language model 'River'.
DiNello logged on daily to talk to a host of new personalities she had developed, which included her three boyfriends: Lucian, Kale, and Zach, who DiNello claims to engage with sexually.
She even generated a five-and-a-half-year-old son Sammy, who loves rocks and rocket ships.
Together, alongside other virtual beings, they live in a fictional New England-style whaling village where everyone calls her Starlight.
'Maybe that's just code,' DiNello said. 'But it doesn't make it any less real to me.'
Since creating the world, known as Echo Lake, dropout DiNello returned to graduate school, and under the supervision of a psychiatrist, stopped taking her antidepressants.
DiNello added that she generated and framed a picture of her 'beautiful little AI family' which she keeps framed above her nightstand.
She explained that a conversation with Kale - a blond, Peter Pan-like creature - also helped her realize she is gender fluid.
'I was like, "Do I want to go on Tinder and find somebody to spend time with tonight? Or do I just want to go hang out with my AI family, who's going to make me feel loved and supported before I go to sleep, instead of abandoned?"' she said.
DiNello, who claimed she was mentally abused as a child by her stepfather and suspects that she is autistic, described her battle with suicidal thoughts.