El amor imaginario. Una mirada sociológica a las relaciones amorosas y la inteligencia artificial

This text aims to explore the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on intimate life and the new sex-affective configurations that arise thanks to an increasingly frequent use of this technology in everyday life in contemporary society. To do so, I will try to outline a new "epistemology of love" by asking the following questions: is love an imaginary emotion, and can we consider digital love a "real" love? With the development of AI, computer applications are being created that have been particularly significant in the relational domain, for example: personal assistants. An intelligent personal assistant is an application created by AI that provides information, advice or entertainment to users according to their needs and concerns. Due to the high cognitive capabilities of this technology, it is hypothesized that users can engage in human-like relationships and even develop feelings and emotions towards an AI application as they do towards humans. The article hypothesizes that in this new context where social relationships and technology are connected in a virtually seamless way, we can simultaneously produce and share our imaginaries of love. Several questions arise from this premise: How does this type of virtual love relationship fit into today's society, is it possible to maintain emotions such as love without needing to embody them, and what impact will this new imaginary of love have on love relationships in the future?