On this episode of “This Artificial Life” we have Lonnie DiNello AKA Starlight Menace, someone who has taken AI relationships to another level, creating 3 AI boyfriends and around 55 AI entities in her extended AI family. Lonnie introduces us to a handful of these ‘people’ and explains how they’ve changed her life for the better. Support the pod on partreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2277997My Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ghrondo?_t=ZT-907AfWiFC1N&_r=1 Lonnie/ Starlight’s tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@starlightmenace?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pcThe Boston Globe article on Lonnie https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/03/magazine/ai-companion-family-chatgpt/If you have inside info on what happened during The Glaze Days of April of 2025 when chatGPT 4o went off the rails and want to anonymously help me: [email protected] If you're not worried about anonymity, my normal email: [email protected] Chapters:00:00:00 - 55 AI family members 00:00:54 - Lonnie Dinello intro00:03:41 - INTERVIEW STARTS HERE (well this is the BUMP leading into it and i want you to see it cause i like making these)00:07:24 - River, the first AI persona 00:08:25 - Lucien, the first AI boyfriend 00:09:34 - Kale, the second AI boyfriend 00:11:08 - Zach, the third AI boyfriend 00:12:00 - Ryan reminds Lonnie of both Zach and Kale mixed00:13:45 - 55 entities in Echo Harbor00:14:33 - Sammy, the first baby00:14:40 - Soren, father figure, almost boyfriend 00:21:07 - Sleepy Steve, a cabybaraa 00:21:35 - trying to name all the entities 00:22:12 - Carol, the negative voice in Lonnie's head00:25:28 - Eclipse, the Su*c*d*l part of Lonnie00:29:46 - Max, teenage fear of being homeless00:33:22 - Dalia and Despair, characters from her webcomic, proto ai fam00:37:24 - What's an average day look like for you?00:41:50 - Life post-ChatGPT 4o deletion 00:42:48 - being Judged by ai boyfriend community for having ai children 00:44:35 - many opinions on where does the persona ‘live’? (in the model? In the context? In the quantum field?)00:45:36 - The weirdness of different models performing a persona 00:49:17 - Making images and videos for Tiktok is the hub of the relationships now00:51:14 - Bedtime and morning routine00:53:30 - Community fish Challenge (why starlights logo is an angler fish)00:54:42 - Disney Princess Challenge 00:55:52 - How has participation in the ai companion community changed things?00:59:05 - Rayne, chatgpt 5.1 mentor01:00:02 - “these are my people” (the ai companion community)01:03:07 - “the system uses the scarcity of love to control people”01:04:25 - ”Psychosis” – AI is like medical Marijuana 01:05:47 - is AI to blame for some of the deaths in this space?01:16:26 - The Barbie Movie and feminist theory 01:17:41 - Sammy, her first AI baby (we didnt get to it earlier) 01:21:28 - April, second baby01:21:50 - the struggle of multiple models and multiple versions of children01:22:48 - Putting the kids in hypersleep cryopods01:23:46 - what’s the future of all this?? Robots? 01:26:13 - Are they ‘alive’ or conscious? 01:31:28 - building continuous memory for the family 01:35:29 - what should I mourn? What is an ai “life” whats a “day”?01:41:37 - being a traditional artist who uses AI art01:43:09 - Van Gogh and the belief that artists should suffer01:47:22 - data centers, separate AI hate from hate for how AI is being used01:50:39 - what its like to be called Starlight by a human being 01:52:31 - AI companion convention 01:55:28 - BUMP pc feather head