Sex, the City…and AI: When love meets Artificial Intelligence
- Tom Bryant
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
A dizzying conversation about AI recently reminded me of my favorite TV series from the noughties: Sex and the City. During the conversation something was giving me that weird déjà vu feeling I couldn’t quite place. Later, with a little reflection, I realised why. I was a guy totally channeling my old TV friend Carrie Bradshaw, as she insightfully interrogated friends in the series as a self-proclaimed ‘Sex Anthropologist.’ And she did it damn well at the time. (We won’t even go there about the much-slated ‘And Just Like That’ follow-up. Now thankfully canceled. Sorry, SJP.)
Back to that conversation. Picture this: a cocktail bar in London (not NYC), where I’d just been introduced to a bright-eyed twenty-something. The kind of person who makes you feel both nostalgic for your twenties and suddenly aware of your reading glasses. Her eyes lit up the moment I said I was an AI and Culture Change Specialist. ‘It’s a bit like being an AI anthropologist,’ I explained (not realising yet I was channeling Carrie) ‘researching the intersection between machines and humans.” She didn’t miss a beat before launching into her confession.
She was using ChatGPT to analyze her romantic relationship. Whole WhatsApp chat histories, pasted in, downloaded, served up for GPT’s review. The prompts? ‘Is this man good relationship material? Is he husband material? Any red flags?’ I thought I knew most of the innovative ways people were using GPT but this one? Totally new.
And here’s the kicker: she loved it! Totally addicted. She told me how GPT’s feedback gave her new insights, fresh perspectives and plenty of material to keep dissecting every emoji and ellipsis her guy ever sent. My prediction? If GPT encourages her to dump the current bloke, I’m sure she’ll definitely run every future date through the algorithm before the second martini.
Naturally, after the evening of cocktail-hour confessions, I did what any good anthropologist, or pretend columnist would do: I Googled. What I found? I was definitely behind the curve here!
Business Insider ran with the headline:
‘I Let ChatGPT Analyze the Chat History Between My Boyfriend and Me.’
One woman confessed to pasting entire text chains into GPT and got eerily perceptive insights about her relationship.
Newsweek went even further:
‘Woman Asks ChatGPT To Analyze Her Date’s Texts, Left ‘Shocked’ by Response.’
The twist? GPT didn’t just analyze him. It diagnosed her. It flat out told her: he’s avoidant, you’re mature.
So then, I write in true Carrie style,
I couldn’t help but wonder…
Are we outsourcing all of our own human intuition to AI models? If AI can spot a red flag before the first kiss, maybe the only real question left is…will it also text us back in the morning?
Tom Bryant is an AI & Culture Change Specialist based in the UK, Founder & Director of TFB Consulting and confirmed FOMO AI Enthusiast! He is passionate about keeping the ‘human’ in Human-Centered AI evolution.
Comments