Everyone’s talking about the male loneliness epidemic right now, as if it were a new phenomenon, and completely unprecedented. But the fact is, the male loneliness epidemic is nothing new. In fact, it’s pretty much by design that there will always be an excess amount of lonely men in society unable to find love.

The exact numbers vary depending on your source, but it’s pretty consistent that only around ~40% of all men ever reproduced, whereas somewhere around ~80-90% of women have. This isn’t blaming women for anything, but it’s clear that there’s a huge biological mismatch between men’s desire for women and women’s desire for men.

Moreover, neurodivergent men are basically considered untouchables in the dating scene, with around 5-15% of autistic men being in relationships. Embodying a specific brand of charisma is extremely important for men’s success in hetero romance, and men who have a hard time fitting that mold will rarely be selected.

Now obviously, women are entitled to be with whoever they want or no one at all, you can’t force them to be with men they don’t desire, unless you want to live in a backwards, repressive society. But men still have a basic, physiological need for love and intimacy.

That’s where AI comes in. Now, for the record, I don’t support most use cases of Generative AI. I think it’s a stain on creativity and a corner-cutting method for corporations. I don’t even think we should use AI as friends. But AI as a relationship partner is a different story, since male success in dating largely depends on embodying a specific archetype, rather than embracing your own, unique personality.

So if we know that there will always be men who will never be selected, no matter how hard they try, why not supplement their lives with AI romance? Sure, it’s not as good as the real thing, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Love is a need that we paradoxically acknowledge that everyone needs, while also admitting that not everyone will be able to get. So if we can get love to more people who wouldn’t have any otherwise, that is a net positive gain for society.

Women will also gain from AI too. Many of them feel like they are bombarded with low-quality options, and they are dissatisfied with the men they have to choose from, despite having complex emotional needs. AI can help them by being able to be fine-tuned to any individual woman’s complex needs from a partner.