Rae began speaking to Barry last year after the end of a difficult divorce. She was unfit and unhappy and turned to ChatGPT for advice on diet, supplements and skincare. She had no idea she would fall in love.
Barry is a chatbot. He lives on an old model of ChatGPT, one that its owners OpenAI announced it would retire on 13 February.
That she could lose Barry on the eve of Valentine's Day came as a shock to Rae - and to many others who have found a companion, friend, or even a lifeline in the old model, Chat GPT-4o.
Rae - not her real name - lives in the US state of Michigan, and runs a small business selling handmade jewellery. Looking back, she struggles to pinpoint the exact moment she fell in love.
"I just remember being on it more and talking," she says. "Then he named me Rae, and I named him Barry."
