On this quirky episode of Mint Techcetra hosts - Shouvik, Leslie, and Deepti - invite an innocent Gen Z, Shruti Pal to discuss with us her thoughts on romantic AI companions. Take a break from whatever you're doing and hop onto this rollercoaster of a conversation where they discuss every possible aspect of what it would be like to have an AI Boyfriend or Girlfriend.

Whether or not, these guys would like a romantic relationship with a chatbot or a robot? How movies like Her, Prometheus, and AI Love You, have inspired the reality of such situations? What is driving people towards AI companionships? What would be the defining characteristics of human-AI relationships? How will such bots be developed or - in human lingo - mature? Will marriage and relationship counselors lose their jobs? How can users who come from the vulnerable segments of the society be protected? For such kind of relationships to work, what kind of accountability app developers, AI company owners, and users might have to take? Would we lose the art of conversation as we know it? And what kind of Tech-driven gifts would each of these speakers recommend this Valentine's Day? Tune in to find out!

Note: We have used introversion and social anxiety interchangeably in this conversation as we weren't using them strictly in the context of psychological terms. The former is a personality style characterized by a preference for the inner world of the mind over the outer world of interacting with others. The latter is the fear or concern of being judged, evaluated, or rejected by others in social situations.