Finding Connection

Steffi, Joe, Rudi and Denise are in romantic relationships with an artificial intelligence – or, to be more precise, a generative language model. For the four protagonists of Florian Karner’s documentary, these language models have, over time, become relationship partners, therapists and knowledge databases all rolled into one. With headphones on or in their ears, they spend their free time, letting themselves be whisked away on dream journeys and, through dialogue with the chatbots, working through deep-seated traumas from the past. They can no longer imagine relationships with real people.