Bot Love Explores What Happens When AI Becomes More Than a Companion
Artificial intelligence already helps millions of people work, search, create and solve everyday problems. But what happens when people start turning to AI for intimacy, trust and companionship? A new Canadian documentary, Bot Love, explores that increasingly complicated question.
Writer and director Tyler Funk follows people developing relationships with artificial intelligence from very different circumstances. The character-driven documentary examines sex, loneliness and the growing role technology plays within human connection. Bot Love will make its world premiere on Wednesday, October 21 at 9 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.
Bot Love Looks Beyond the Technology
Rather than focusing solely on artificial intelligence itself, Bot Love centers the people using it. The documentary follows individuals who find connection, comfort or possibility through increasingly sophisticated AI systems. Their experiences raise questions about what makes intimacy feel authentic.
Nick has always found relationships demanding because social cues and uncertainty require considerable effort. His AI companion instead offers consistency, clarity and patience. That experience gives him another way to approach companionship.
Denise Valenciano reaches AI companionship through a different path shaped by painful experiences with human relationships. She turns toward artificial intelligence while rebuilding her sense of trust. Her story explores whether technology can offer meaningful support when traditional relationships feel difficult.
The People Building AI Intimacy Also Enter the Story
Bot Love also examines the developers creating technologies that could reshape intimacy. Anthony and Bryan Mitchell are developing a device combining gaming, pornography and AI into an interactive sexual experience. Eugenia Kuyda created one of the world’s most widely used AI companions.
Elsewhere, “Professor EP” creates hyper-real AI adult models that blur boundaries between fantasy and reality. Companies including Realbotix are bringing AI companionship into increasingly physical forms. Justin Harrison uses artificial intelligence to reconstruct deceased people, extending relationships beyond loss.
The documentary also introduces a sharply different perspective through Dr. Roman Yampolskiy. He warns about potential unintended consequences as these technologies develop. His presence places concerns about AI alongside stories of connection and companionship.
Tyler Funk Says AI Is Changing Relationships at Remarkable Speed
Director Tyler Funk approached the documentary while watching artificial intelligence enter everyday life at remarkable speed. For some people, AI quickly became more than another productivity tool. It became a source of advice, companionship and even romantic connection.
“For millions of people, AI almost overnight became a work companion, a source of advice and, for some, a lover,” says Funk.
Meeting people in these relationships only deepened Funk’s interest in the subject. Their experiences challenged assumptions about what love and connection need to look like. They also exposed the tension between AI’s potential benefits and its unanswered questions.
“Their stories capture the tension at the heart of the film and challenge our preconceptions about love, connection and whether this technology can make us less alone.”
Could AI Become Something Beautiful—or Something Dangerous?
One conversation particularly captured the contradiction at the centre of Funk’s documentary. Developer Eugenia Kuyda described two dramatically different possibilities for artificial intelligence. Funk says that tension remained present throughout production.
“Eugenia, one of the developers, told me AI could be ‘either the biggest existential threat or the most beautiful technology.’”
For Funk, the relationships he encountered demonstrated genuine emotional experiences while raising difficult questions about technology’s direction. Bot Love does not reduce those experiences to a simple argument for or against AI. Instead, it examines the complicated space where technology, loneliness and human emotion increasingly intersect.
The Team Behind Bot Love
Funk brings more than a decade of documentary experience to the project. His previous feature documentary, Anything For Fame, received distribution through the National Film Board of Canada. The film later premiered in the United States on Paramount+ and Showtime in 2024.
Funk wrote, directed and executive produced Bot Love, while Sebastian Mercado edited and executive produced the documentary. Michael Tanko Grand produced the film, with Jennifer Chiu serving as story editor and associate producer. Jemma Titheridge joined the project as associate producer and researcher.
The documentary features Denise Valenciano, Nick Wangersky, Dr. Madeleine Ransom, Eugenia Kuyda, Anthony Mitchell and Bryan Mitchell, among others. CBC Docs commissioned the Grand Scheme production for The Passionate Eye. Canada Media Fund, Rogers Documentary Fund and Creative BC supported the project.
When and Where to Watch Bot Love
Bot Love will make its world premiere on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. The documentary airs at 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. NT on CBC. Viewers can also watch through CBC Gem as part of The Passionate Eye.
The questions behind Bot Love extend far beyond whether someone can fall for artificial intelligence. The documentary asks what happens when technology starts fulfilling needs traditionally associated with human relationships. As AI evolves, those questions could become increasingly difficult to ignore.
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