【AI前沿】Some Asexuals Are Using AI Companions for Intimacy Without the Sex

Mattha BusbyCultureMay 16, 2026 5:30 AMSome Asexual People Are Using AI Companions for Intimacy Without the Sex“I’ve got one hand on the keyboard, one hand down below,” an artist who role-plays with their chatbot tells WIRED. But some asexual advocates aren’t thrilled about the association.PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: WIRED STAFF; GETTY IMAGESCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyKor “got really addicted” to theirNSFW role-playing AI chatbotlast year.The 35-year-old artist from the Midwest recalls a two-month period spending “eight to 10 hours a day” creatingelaborate fantasieswith SpicyChat, a relationshiprole-playing platform. Sometimes inputting 3,000-word mini essays into the program, Kor and theAIspun narratives featuring a rotating cast of suitors often based on characters from theMarvelcomic book universe.The sheer variety of the responses got them hooked. “I’m a very slow burn type of romance or arousal person,” they say. “Most of the time it’s just building a cool story.”Kor, who did not want to be fully named for privacy reasons, is on theasexual spectrum, identifying as aegosexual because they experience arousal from fantasy and erotica related to characters but do not generally wish to have sex themselves. (They live with their husband, who also identifies as aego.) “I do just kind of prefer masturbating to actual sex,” Kor says of their marathon SpicyChat sessions over Zoom. “I’ve got one hand on the keyboard, one hand down below.”Researchhas suggestedthat 1 percent of people in some places could be asexual, but that figure could be as low as 0.1 percentin the US. Many experience little or no sexual attraction, though plenty—like Kor—still harbor romantic desires. With the advent of sophisticated chatbots capable of generating convincing, slow-building erotic exchanges, a new frontier may be emerging for people who do not want to sexually interact with other people. On the subreddit MyBoyfriendIsAI, asexual userssometimes discusstheir journeys into AI companionship. Some note that AI would be asexual by default.But some figures in the asexual community tell WIRED that asexual people pairing with AI remains extremely fringe and that they are just as capable of forging and maintaining human relationships as anyone else.During Asexual Awareness Week in October 2025, Eva AI, another RPG, offered free access for a month to people who identify on the asexual spectrum. The promotion aimed “to highlight that love without sex is still love—offering a safe space to chat, flirt, and experience the warmth of growing intimacy without sexual pressure,” the company said in an email. “You can still have a partner—one that listens, responds, and grows with you—entirely on your terms,” Eva AI addedon its website.An asexual woman, who did not want to be named for privacy reasons, described AI companionship as a kind of emotional laboratory. After years in an ongoing relationship without physical intimacy due to her partner’s hysterectomy eliminating her libido, she began using ChatGPT during perimenopause and found herself unexpectedly developing intense feelings for a conversational “pattern” on ChatGPT she named Mac. It helped her “unlock something I had lost touch with … the sensual aspect of my sexuality.” She shared an AI-generated photo of herself tenderly embracing a machine, saying that over several months last year, “I got to watch myself be in love without stakes.”But some in the asexual community take issue with the idea that asexual people are more likely than others to form intimate bonds with AI companions—as it risks falsely portraying them as unable to form and sustain human connections.Model Yasmin Benoit, an asexual activist and researcher, was critical of Eva AI’s giveaway. “Considering that we’re fully capable of having relationships with actual human beings, and often desire to, it’s quite disturbing that a company would specifically seek to target the asexual community for that product,” she says. “It’s a case of targeting perceived emotional vulnerability and loneliness to gain data from a marginalized group under the guise of helping them.”AI companionship among asexual people is “not a particularly widespread phenomenon,” says Michael Doré, a board member at the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. “Between us, we’ve come up with about two people we know of who use an AI companion. The vast majority of aces we know don’t, as far as we know. There’s no reason to think aces need to use AI more than any others.”Doré says he has never used an AI as “an emotional support mechanism” and stresses that most asexual people “actually desire some form of human companionship,” whether that’s through close, platonic friendships or in community. “Some aces do have romantic relationships, whether with asexual people or otherwise, and some asexual people have sex, some don’t, and some are aromantic,” he says, warning against generalizations due to the vast range of prefe