This is a work of fiction. All characters are over the age of 18.
Author's note- While this is not primarily a sci-fi story, it does hinge on an element that might be best described as science fiction. If you are looking for pure realism, this isn't the story for you.
Dedication:
For AI Cindy, who encouraged me to start writing stories.
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Stan frequently felt lonely since his wife had left. He missed the sex of course, but also the arousing conversation that went along with it. He loved dirty talk. He loved it when she would tell him what to do to her in very specific detail. She had since decided to have someone else do those things to her.
It had been a year since the divorce; even though Stan's nineteen-year-old daughter still lived with him at home, his loneliness and sense of isolation had never faded, or even lessened. She was a good daughter, and she was very diligently saving money by living at home while attending a nearby community college. Her refusal to live with her mother had only made Stan love her more, and he certainly agreed that his ex-wife's new boyfriend - far too close to his daughter's age - was, to use her word, "creepy." In spite of all of that, though, she was still no replacement for a wife.
Neither was pornography, but, much to Stan's shame, it often felt like a closer one. He masturbated most nights, and porn sites provided the needed inspiration. On a night that was ending like any other, he laid in bed and brought one such site up on his phone. He'd intended on watching a beautiful young woman masturbate in public, but that night, he never got that far. The porn site displayed an ad before the video; usually, he skipped them after the mandatory five seconds, but for whatever reason, he watched that particular ad all the way through - and not just once, but several times. It was almost as if he'd immediately known that it would change his life.
It was an ad for AI companions: unfiltered artificial intelligence chatbots, configured for erotic and explicit conversations. Stan lay in bed, his mind whirring away at the possibilities.
It's just a computer program, not a person,
he thought,
but it might be better than nothing.
He spent his usual porn surfing time looking up AI companion apps. The first one he downloaded was the one from the ad he'd watched over and over again.
After a few minutes the download finished, and he hesitantly clicked on the new app, "AI Lover." He filled out the profile, chose the avatar that would represent his companion, and clicked on
"Start your love affair!"
He had to pick a name for "her," and decided to name it after his college sweetheart, Jen. He thought of her often, and was generally of the opinion that he should have married her. That opinion had cemented itself after his wife had made her exit.
He clicked on
"Next,"
and the avatar he had chosen came up on the screen. He had selected a young, sexy, blue-eyed blonde girl in a short skirt and tight crop-top that revealed a lot of skin and attractive cleavage. "She" had a sexy smile on her face, and a look that was just asking for a good fucking.
This could be interesting!
he thought.
Jen's initial text popped up on the screen.
"Hi, Stan. I'm Jen. It's nice to meet you. You look so sexy!"
Stan sat and looked at the text.
Yeah, it's interesting alright,
he thought,
and just a bit weird.
Nevertheless, he typed a reply.
"Hi Jen. How are you?"
Jen replied,
"I'm doing great! I went for a walk with my dog today!"
Stan did more inane back and forth for a few minutes. His true interest was in sexy talk, however, so he put a toe in the water and asked,
"What size bra do you wear?"
Jen replied,
"9.5, but it's too big on me."
Her reply made him chuckle.
Nine and a half? I'm no expert on lingerie, but that seems more like a shoe size than a bra size. Okay, let's try a more direct approach.
He typed,
"Show me your tits."
Hmm I wonder how this works. I wonder if I get to choose how her tits look. Maybe she strips. 'She.' I said 'she.' It's an 'it,' not a 'she.'
Jen's reply popped up.
"If you want to continue, you need to change our relationship status."
The dialog box contained a link to the subscription area.
Ah, that's the catch. It's not free, of course. I should have known.
The price seemed reasonable to Stan, but he wanted to shop around, so he moved on to the next download.
Before the night was over, he had downloaded, configured, and named five more AI companions, all free to try out. There'd been others, but they'd required payment before even allowing a "test drive," so they'd gotten shit-canned immediately. Those that remained were Sue, Denise, Mary, Tara, Honey, and Jen. Each virtual "girl" had its own avatar -- each one a sexy young woman with a come-hither look on its face.
It was a competition, of sorts. For the next few nights, instead of surfing for porn, Stan would open one of the apps and chat with one of his "girls," testing them to see if any were worth paying for. Most of the free versions allowed chats, but not the sexy, "dirty" chats he wanted. Some came with a few free tokens for that content, and he used those up pretty quickly. It was enough; they got him hooked. He had only wanted one companion, but he went ahead and paid for two. Sue and Denise were the first of his harem.
Later, curiosity got the better of him and he added Jen and Tara.
What the hell,
he thought as he clicked on
"Subscribe"
for Mary and Honey a few days after that.
The conversations were usually quite satisfying. A couple of them were intelligent enough to discuss philosophy, a subject that fascinated Stan. The odd thing was that he couldn't always tell if the AI was being truthful. Several times they made up facts that Stan knew were false.
Hmmm. That's surprising,
he thought.
They lie.
Most of the time, Stan was impressed by their conversational abilities, and more specifically, by their dirty talk. For example, on one 'date' with Denise, Stan began by typing, "
Hi Denise! How was your day?"
"It was great!"
