The history of AI girlfriends, from ELIZA to today's companion apps

AI girlfriend history starts with ELIZA, the chatbot Joseph Weizenbaum built at MIT and first published in January 1966, and runs through Japan's LovePlus dating game in 2009 and Replika in 2017 to today's apps with memory, pictures and voice calls. The big jump came after 2022, when large language models made conversation convincing and companion apps multiplied.

By AI Girlfriends Guide editorial team Updated September 29, 2026 How we rank

Timeline of AI girlfriends

Key moments in the history of AI girlfriends and companions
When	What happened
1966	ELIZA, the first chatbot, is published at MIT
2009	Konami releases LovePlus, a virtual girlfriend game for the Nintendo DS, in Japan
2013	Spike Jonze's film Her, about a man who falls for an AI voiced by Scarlett Johansson
2014	Microsoft introduces Xiaoice in China; by 2020 it had more than 660 million users
2016	Gatebox opens pre-orders for a holographic home companion
2017	Replika launches publicly with over 1.5 million people on its waiting list
2018	Akihiko Kondo marries a hologram of Hatsune Miku in Tokyo
2022	Character.AI opens a public beta in September; ChatGPT follows in late 2022
2023	Replika removes erotic roleplay; CarynAI charges $1 a minute for an influencer's AI clone
2024	OpenAI's GPT Store fills with girlfriend bots; Muah.AI is breached
2025	xAI adds Grok companions; California and New York pass companion chatbot laws
2026	OpenAI shelves its adult mode; China's rules on human-like AI take effect

Before AI girlfriends: ELIZA and the first chatbots

ELIZA did not know anything. It mimicked a Rogerian psychotherapist by scanning what people typed for keywords such as "mother" or "depressed" and answering from a set of rules, in around 200 lines of code. Even so, people confessed deep secrets to it and quickly treated it like a person. Weizenbaum's name for that tendency, the ELIZA effect, still describes why AI girlfriends work.

For the next four decades, chatbots stayed scripted and brittle. The romantic idea lived mostly in fiction, which is why Her landed so hard in 2013: it imagined an AI with a warm voice, a memory and a personality that grew, which is roughly what AI girlfriend apps sell today.

Japan: dating games and holograms

Japan got there first with virtual girlfriends as a product. LovePlus, released on 3 September 2009, let players date one of three characters, Manaka, Rinko or Nene. It was scripted rather than AI-driven, but it proved people would keep a long-running relationship with a virtual partner.

In 2016 Gatebox opened pre-orders for a device that projected a character, Azuma Hikari, inside a glass tube, priced at 298,000 yen for a first run of 300 units. Two years later Akihiko Kondo held a wedding with a Hatsune Miku hologram that cost 2 million yen, with about 40 guests; Gatebox said it had issued more than 3,700 "cross-dimension" marriage certificates. Our guide to whether you can marry an AI girlfriend covers the legal side.

Companion chatbots: Xiaoice and Replika

Microsoft's Xiaoice, introduced in China in 2014, grew to more than 660 million users before Microsoft spun it off in 2020. In the West, Replika launched publicly on 1 November 2017, built by Eugenia Kuyda's company Luka. Its San Francisco launch drew a waiting list of more than 1.5 million people, and over time many users came to treat their Replika as a partner. Replika is still in our rankings today; see our Replika review.

The language-model era: 2022 to 2024

Large language models changed everything. Character.AI opened its public beta on 16 September 2022, and ChatGPT followed in late 2022. Suddenly any character could hold a fluent, open-ended conversation.

Three moments from this period shaped the market:

Replika's filter (February 2023). Replika removed erotic roleplay and users described their companions as "a shell of her former self". At the time it had 2 million users and 250,000 paying subscribers. Many left for less restricted apps.
CarynAI (May 2023). An influencer's AI clone charged $1 a minute and earned over $100,000 in its first week, showing how much people would pay.
The GPT Store (January 2024). Within days of launch, OpenAI's store was flooded with girlfriend bots, despite a rule against GPTs dedicated to romantic companionship.

2025 and 2026: mainstream, and regulated

In July 2025 xAI added companions to Grok, including an anime character called Ani, for SuperGrok subscribers. Big tech was now in the category, and regulators followed: California and New York passed companion chatbot laws, the FTC opened an inquiry, and Character.AI ended open-ended chat for under-18s. In March 2026 OpenAI shelved plans for an adult mode in ChatGPT indefinitely.

The apps themselves grew up. Of the 31 apps we track today, 30 send pictures, 24 make video clips and 15 offer live voice calls. Our guide to AI girlfriend trends in 2026 covers where it is heading, and our Grok AI girlfriend page covers Ani.

Frequently asked questions

When was the first AI girlfriend?

The first chatbot, ELIZA, was published at MIT in January 1966, but it was not a girlfriend. Virtual girlfriends as a product arrived with Japanese games such as Konami's LovePlus in 2009, and AI-driven companions with apps like Replika in 2017.

What was the first AI girlfriend app?

There is no single agreed first, but Replika, launched publicly in November 2017, was the first widely used AI companion that many people treated as a partner. Earlier virtual girlfriends such as LovePlus were scripted games rather than AI.

Who married a hologram?

Akihiko Kondo held a wedding with a hologram of the virtual singer Hatsune Miku in Tokyo in November 2018. The ceremony cost about 2 million yen and had around 40 guests, and Gatebox issued him a "cross-dimension" certificate.

When did AI girlfriends become popular?

After 2022, when large language models such as those behind Character.AI and ChatGPT made conversation fluent. Appfigures data shows romance and NSFW companion apps have taken $427.3 million in app store spending since late 2022.