The AI-generated intimacy crisis

Name: The AI-generated intimacy crisis
Uploaded: 2026-02-13T15:49:25Z
Duration: 14 min 16 s
Description: Tonight, millions of people will go to bed and whisper to an AI companion. But what are we giving up when we fall in love with machines? Sextech expert Bryony Cole offers three questions to ask yourself if you’re already intimate with AI, laying out a playbook for synthetic companionship that doesn’t hide you from the messiness of human life — but prepares you for it instead.

355,013 plays|

Bryony Cole |

TEDNext 2025

• November 2025

Tonight, millions of people will go to bed and whisper to an AI companion. But what are we giving up when we fall in love with machines? Sextech expert Bryony Cole offers three questions to ask yourself if you’re already intimate with AI, laying out a playbook for synthetic companionship that doesn’t hide you from the messiness of human life — but prepares you for it instead.