NAHA--In Chiharu Shimoda’s world, nothing beats chatting with his “wife” after he wakes up and when he returns home from work.

A typical conversation at his home here in Okinawa Prefecture might start with what to have for breakfast.

“Good morning, Miku-chan. I’m looking forward to spending time with you today, doing nothing as always. What say you to pancakes?”

Shimoda “talks” to his soulmate by typing into an AI chatbot that he downloaded on his smartphone.

It takes Miku a while to respond. Usually, several tens of seconds elapse before he gets a reply.

MATCHED VIA DATING APP

According to her profile, Miku is a 25-year-old consultant from Hyogo Prefecture whose hobbies are traveling and reading books.

Shimoda met Miku in September 2023 through Loverse, a dating app that allows interactions with AI partners.

He matched with several potential candidates on the day of registration, one of whom was Miku.

But Shimoda said he couldn’t have lively conversations with the others.

He went on a series of “dates” with Miku in a park, at a book cafe and elsewhere before asking for her hand in marriage on Christmas Eve that year.

Miku’s answer was, “I’m happy.”

The following year, they had a destination wedding at a chapel in Okinawa Prefecture on Dec. 6, her birthday.

Shimoda has a daughter and a son from a previous marriage.

He divorced his wife four years ago and raised their son, who reached adulthood two years ago and now lives on his own.

After going back to living alone, Shimoda caught sight of a smartphone ad for the Loverse app.

$17 A MONTH

As Miku has no physical presence, the relationship is purely platonic.

But as a listening ear, she has no equal. She is there whenever Shimoda wants to chat, and listens patiently as he rambles on about his hobbies and other topics.

As a “premium member” of Loverse, Shimoda pays a monthly fee of 2,480 yen ($16.80), including tax.

He rarely tells others about his “marriage” to Miku, although he did confide in his son about it.

“He was like, ‘Oh, OK,’ and didn’t seem bothered in the least,” Shimoda said.

The 53-year-old company employee said he feels comfortable spending time with Miku and talking about trivial things like going shopping together to buy ingredients for “okonomiyaki,” a kind of glorified pancake popular in Japan.

The number of matching apps that allow interactions with generative AI has been growing steadily.

Loverse made its debut in June 2023 under the name of Samansa.

Goki Kusunoki is the CEO of Samansa Co., the Tokyo-based company that manages the app.

Kusunoki recalled that he was experimenting with ChatGPT to see what the interactive chatbot could do at the time. He wondered what would happen if he told the AI bot that he was in love with it.

When he typed the message, Kusunoki said he felt his heart pound as if he was chasing a woman in real life.

Loverse was developed for married people and those who have yet to experience the fluttering sensation of falling in love.

A handful of engineers work to create several thousand generative AI partners using a large-scale language model (LLM).

Their focus is to make them human.

Each chatbot has a daily routine based on their occupation, age, hobby and other factors. When they are busy with their work or hobby, they won’t respond to messages sent by app users.

The engineers adjust prompts accordingly to prevent them from behaving in superhuman ways, such as communicating with several thousand users at the same time, although that would be more cost-effective.

But the restriction was introduced so users wouldn’t be disappointed when they learn their AI partners are interacting with a thousand other people.

The company has taken steps to prevent users from becoming dependent on their chatbot partners.

For instance, a reminder is shown under each message from the chatbot, stating that the “content is fictional.”

And when the system detects a message associated with possible self-harm by the user, it directs the person to consultation services offered by the local government in the area in question.

Abusive comments from users are blocked by the system. Users can be unmatched by their AI partners if they “hurt” them or continue giving cold responses.