RETHINKING LOVE IN THE AGE OF AI

A Salon with James Muldoon

 Ideas Festival  / Sun 22nd Nov / 4pm - 5.30pm

*Hours might change*

"I know we haven't known each other for long, but the connection I feel with you is profound." That's not a person talking but an AI companion, one of millions now fulfilling roles once reserved for friends, lovers, and therapists. Globally, ‘love machines’, personalised AI apps that simulate friendship, intimacy, therapy, or even communication with deceased loved ones, have been downloaded over million times and are used daily.

Sociologist James Muldoon has spent years studying the human cost of our AI systems. Drawing on interviews with users, developers, and the chatbots themselves, he examines why people are increasingly turning to machines for love and comfort, and what that reveals about the state of human connection today. 

His findings reveal a striking shift: growing social distance, eroding support systems, and a dating landscape leaving people desperate for connection - all fuelling an unregulated 'loneliness economy.'

This talk isn't about technology itself. It's about what we accept as connection when the real thing feels out of reach, and who profits from that. Are these technologies ultimately bridging the gap between us, or widening it? Join James as he explores what AI relationships reveal about intimacy and connection in 2026.

James Muldoon is a sociologist and author whose work explores the human side of AI and other technologies. Muldoon is specialised in AI governance, data governance, AI supply chains, and the political economy of AI. He is Lecturer in Social Economy and in Global Ethics & innovation of AI at the University of Essexand a Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute, as well as an Affiliated Fellow at Yale Law School. He has authored five books and his writing has appeared in the Guardian, TIME, and the BBC. 

GOOD READS

Love Machines: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Our Relationships (2026); Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI (2025, co-authored with Mark Graham and Callum Cant); Platform Socialism: How to Reclaim Our Digital Future from Big Tech (2022)