# Technically Love: The Evolution of Human-AI Romance Discourse on Reddit

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.15333 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.15333/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 16 of its 94 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Mar 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 16 of 16)

- [Snorkel: Rapid Training Data Creation with Weak Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.10160/) (2017)
- [Sociotechnical Harms of Algorithmic Systems: Scoping a Taxonomy for Harm Reduction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.05791/) (2022)
- [The Ethics of AI Ethics -- An Evaluation of Guidelines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.03425/) (2019)
- [ELEPHANT: Measuring and understanding social sycophancy in LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13995/) (2025)
- [The Dark Side of AI Companionship: A Taxonomy of Harmful Algorithmic Behaviors in Human-AI Relationships](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.20130/) (2024)
- ["My Boyfriend is AI": A Computational Analysis of Human-AI Companionship in Reddit's AI Community](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.11391/) (2025)
- [Chatbots as social companions: How people perceive consciousness, human likeness, and social health benefits in machines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.10599/) (2023)
- [Understanding Teen Overreliance on AI Companion Chatbots Through Self-Reported Reddit Narratives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.15783/) (2025)
- [Content Moderation on Social Media in the EU: Insights From the DSA Transparency Database](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04431/) (2023)
- [AI-induced sexual harassment: Investigating Contextual Characteristics and User Reactions of Sexual Harassment by a Companion Chatbot](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.04299/) (2025)
- [AI Will Always Love You: Studying Implicit Biases in Romantic AI Companions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.20231/) (2025)
- [The Real Her? Exploring Whether Young Adults Accept Human-AI Love](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.03067/) (2025)
- [Can LLMs Talk 'Sex'? Exploring How AI Models Handle Intimate Conversations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05514/) (2025)
- [On Benjamini-Hochberg procedure applied to mid p-values](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.01701/) (2019)
- [`My Dataset of Love': A Preliminary Mixed-Method Exploration of Human-AI Romantic Relationships](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.13655/) (2025)
- [Gendered Pathways in AI Companionship: Cross-Community Behavior and Toxicity Patterns on Reddit](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.01073/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Me and My Bot: What Users Talk About in AI Companion Communities on Reddit](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.00748/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Human-AI romantic relationships are increasingly common, yet little is understood about how public discourse around them emerges and shifts over time. Prior research has examined user experiences and ethical concerns, but lacks longitudinal analyses of user-initiated public discussions. We address this gap by analyzing a high-precision dataset of 3,383 self-disclosed romantic companion AI posts from Reddit (2017-2025), using topic modeling and temporal statistical analysis to identify dominant themes and their evolution over time. We find significant topic drift, with discussions moving away from positive intimate relationships toward platform governance, technical issues, and real-world consequences. These shifts highlight a transition in how human-AI romance is framed-moving from private experiences to technical mediation and regulation-with implications for the design and governance of companion AI systems.