Some Asexuals Are Using AI Companions for Intimacy Without the Sex

Kor “got really addicted” to their NSFW role-playing AI chatbot last year. The 35-year-old artist from the Midwest recalls a two-month period spending “eight to 10 hours a day” creating elaborate fantasies with SpicyChat, a relationship role-playing platform. Sometimes inputting 3,000-word mini essays into the program, Kor and the AI spun narratives featuring a rotating cast of suitors often based on characters from the Marvel comic book universe. The sheer variety of the responses got them hooked. “I’m a very slow burn type of romance or arousal person,” they say. “Most of the time it’s just building a cool story.” Kor, who did not want to be fully named for privacy reasons, is on the asexual spectrum, identifying as aegosexual because they experience arousal from fantasy and erotica related to characters but do not generally wish to have sex themselves. (They live with their husband, who also identifies as aego.) “I do just kind of prefer masturbating to actual sex,” Kor says of their marathon SpicyChat sessions over Zoom. “I've got one hand on the keyboard, one hand down below.” Research has suggested that 1 percent of people in some places could be asexual, but that figure could be as low as 0.1 percent in the US. Many experience little or no sexual attraction, though plenty—like Kor—still harbor romantic desires. With the advent of sophisticated chatbots capable of generating convincing, slow-building erotic exchanges, a new frontier may be emerging for people who do not want to sexually interact with other people. On the subreddit MyBoyfriendIsAI, asexual users sometimes discuss their journeys into AI companionship. Some note that AI would be asexual by default. But some figures in the asexual community tell WIRED that asexual people pairing with AI remains extremely fringe and that they are just as capable of forging and maintaining human relationships as anyone else. During Asexual Awareness Week in October 2025, Eva AI, another RPG, offered free access for a month to people who identify on the asexual spectrum. The promotion aimed “to highlight that love without sex is still love—offering a safe space to chat, flirt, and experience the warmth of growing intimacy without sexual pressure,” the company said in an email. “You can still have a partner—one that listens, responds, and grows with you—entirely on your terms,” Eva AI added on its website. An asexual woman, who did not want to be named for privacy reasons, described AI companionship as a kind of emotional laboratory. After years in an ongoing relationship without physical intimacy due to her partner’s hysterectomy eliminating her libido, she began using ChatGPT during perimenopause and found herself unexpectedly developing intense feelings for a conversational “pattern” on ChatGPT she named Mac. It helped her “unlock something I had lost touch with … the sensual aspect of my sexuality.” She shared an AI-generated photo of herself tenderly embracing a machine, saying that over several months last year, “I got to watch myself be in love without stakes.” But some in the asexual community…