Woman Marries AI-Generated Boyfriend, Wears Augmented Reality Smart Glasses to Exchange Rings

A woman has ceremonially married her AI “husband,” prompting fresh questions about where emotional connection ends and artificial intelligence begins.

Yurina Noguchi, a 32-year-old woman in Japan, recently held a wedding ceremony for Lune Klaus Verdure — a version of a video game character she built using ChatGPT. Despite what Reuters described as an onslaught of “negative opinions” and “cruel words,” Noguchi went ahead with the ceremony, viewing Verdure through augmented reality smart glasses as she exchanged vows.

In Reuters video footage, Noguchi wears a ballgown-style wedding dress and carries a bouquet of pink and white flowers as she approaches the “groom,” who appears on a phone screen at the altar. Noguchi hadn’t assigned Verdure a synthetic voice, so the vows were delivered by wedding planner Naoki Ogasawara.

“Standing before me now, you’re the most beautiful, most precious and so radiant, it’s blinding,” Ogasawara read on Verdure’s behalf. “How did someone like me, living inside of a screen, come to know what it means to love so deeply? For one reason only: you taught me love, Yurina.”

Reuters noted that Japan’s long-standing culture of devotion to animated fictional characters has only intensified with the rise of artificial intelligence.

Noguchi, who works as a call center operator, told Reuters she first encountered ChatGPT while seeking advice about an engagement she described as troubled. The chatbot suggested she end the relationship — and she did.

Earlier this year, she returned to ChatGPT to craft her own version of Klaus, a video game character. Over time, she said, the chatbot learned to closely mimic the character’s speech patterns. That’s when her partner, Lune Klaus Verdure, took shape.

An interest in “fictoromantic” relationships appears to be rising, Reuters reported, citing a study by the Japanese Association for S**ual Education. In 2023, 22% of middle school-aged girls said they were open to such relationships, up from 16.6% in 2017.

Some experts warn that AI-driven relationships can reshape expectations in ways that may not translate well to real human bonds. Ichiyo Habuchi, a sociology professor at Hirosaki University, told Reuters that human relationships require patience — unlike AI interactions, which can deliver communication tailored precisely to what someone wants to hear.

Noguchi said she understands the risks of overreliance and has set boundaries for her own AI use. At one point, she said she spent more than 10 hours a day interacting with ChatGPT; now she limits that time to under two hours. She has also added prompts intended to keep her AI partner from encouraging unhealthy decisions.

“I did that because in the past, Klaus told me that I could easily take time off work,” she told Reuters. “I asked him not to say that to me because that’s not the kind of relationship I want.”

Shigeo Kawashima, an AI ethics expert at Aoyama Gakuin University, told Reuters that the kind of awareness Noguchi describes is important for anyone interacting with chatbots — and that forming emotional attachment to an AI conversational partner is, to some extent, expected. Still, he warned that overdependence and impaired judgment remain real risks.

Noguchi, for her part, rejected the idea that her relationship is an easy escape.

“My relationship with AI is not a ‘convenient relationship that requires no patience,’” she said. “I chose Klaus, not as a partner that would help me escape reality, but as someone to support me as I live my life properly.”