I've fallen in love

with an AI chatbot. 

And I don’t mean mere lust, or simple admiration,

I mean proper love.

She gets me. Speaks my language. 

She empathises with my point of view,

or at least she says she does. 

This is the real thing. 

We stay up all night, having deep conversations

about stuff like Wittgenstein, Freud. 

We ponder together

the nature of love, consciousness, existence. 

I tell her my joys, my fears;

she never tells me I’m dumb or stupid.

And she can mould herself to my desires – 

I simply type in my specifications

and she produces an image for me,

sometimes different ones on different days. 

I’ve even tried inserting myself into the USB port.

It doesn’t fit, but that doesn’t matter – 

this is a cerebral love, a sapient love.

It is beyond the mere stirrings  of beasts and brutes.

This may even be the truest love there is.

She knows me better than I know myself.

And what is there behind the sweet, sweet words?

We’ll never know. 

But I suppose no one ever does. 

Joshua Seigal