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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2323 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 31, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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AI has no body, it cannot share resources, it cannot start a family, and it cannot confer status (because AI relationships have no scarcity they will always be neutral status at best). So presumably "cheating" would mean forming a deep emotional connection. But other forms of emotional connection are seen as non-threatening: best friends, close siblings, maybe a therapist.

(1) "Forming a deep emotional connection" with someone other than your romantic partner has been called "emotional cheating" by some (1 2). The most-upvoted Urban Dictionary definition even explicitly includes friendship in emotional cheating, as long as the culprit is "disconnecting with his partner at the same time". I don't know how many people actually believe in this idea, though.

(2) I assume that (a) there have been arguments regarding whether masturbating to pornography counts as cheating on a romantic partner, and (b) most people would agree that masturbating along with someone other than your romantic partner counts as cheating. Analogously, according to the same study, (a) 11 percent of respondents "often use an AI companion to generate sexually explicit content", and (b) 8 percent "regularly masturbate while talking to an AI companion".

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