TED Talks Daily Love, intimacy and connection in the age of AI | Bryony Cole
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Mar 7, 2026 
Bryony Cole, a sextech researcher and speaker on human-machine intimacy, explores how AI companions are reshaping connection. She describes who uses them and why. She discusses ethical and privacy risks, the balance between customization and serendipity, AI’s roles in caregiving and sex education, and her idea of an “intimacy operating system” to guide healthy hybrid relationships.
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AI Blurs Lines Around Family And Parenthood
- AI is expanding into domains once thought uniquely human, including family and raising children conceptually.
- Cole highlights stories of people imagining AI spouses or AI children, and women with fertility issues considering AI families.
Decide Boundaries Before Outsourcing Emotions
- Consider whether AI use brings you closer to people or isolates you, and set personal boundaries for use.
- Cole recommends using AI as practice for vulnerability or emotional literacy, not an automatic replacement for human ties.
Work Relationships Risk Being Outsourced To AI
- AI will reshape workplace relationships by mediating difficult conversations and leaders' voices.
- Cole warns outsourcing vision, feedback, or emotional labour to AI risks losing human authenticity that builds teams and products.