Recently, Pete Davidson’s Alexa commercial has been making waves, especially given the desirability of lucrative live sports advertising spots. In the commercial, the well-known comedian flirtatiously banters with Amazon’s cloud-based AI voice assistant, “Alexa,” while discussing his idea for a new go-by name. The commercial ends with Davidson saying he’ll stick with the name Pete. Alexa agrees, saying, “Pete, I like it!” He warmly responds with a smile, “I like you too.”
Each Valentine’s Day, many of us contemplate the nature of true, committed love. Unfortunately, as this ad conveys, we now live in a world where relationships with machines are replacing real human love.
Given this cheap and unequal substitute, we must ask ourselves whether AI companionship provides a sustainable future for American romance. Should we, as a nation, marry off our sons to… Alexa?
Certainly not. Real love with marriage in mind serves a key role in building families, a crucial foundation for a thriving America. It is a relational role that AI cannot authentically replace. These are worthy reflections, especially amid this year’s Semiquincentennial recognition and celebrations. This Valentine’s Day, let’s pause to consider that America was built upon the foundation of the family, rooted in love. This is why families must be protected and strengthened to sustain our nation going forward.
The Rise of Artificial Companionship
There are numerous challenges to healthy relationships in modern America. AI is only one of the most recent. AI companies are rapidly adding humanizing features to boost user engagement. The incentive is massive; industry consensus holds that whichever of the many AI startups comes out on top will become one of the world’s most valuable companies.
The market opportunity is not theoretical. Already in 2026, ChatGPT has over 800 million weekly active users, while analysts estimate the global AI market could grow into the trillions of dollars over the coming decade. When companies have incentives that large, they are not simply competing to build helpful tools; they are competing to build emotionally sticky platforms that feel personal, intimate and irreplaceable. And once AI is framed as a “partner” rather than a product, the human heart becomes part of the business model.
It’s no secret that while AI has many benefits, it also poses significant relational risks. Reports indicate that over half of teenagers already regularly use AI companions. Likewise, a wave of high-profile cases involving teenage suicide are making their way into the courts, presented before various legislative bodies.
The reprehensible pornography industry has already been disrupted by customizable fantasies and, in especially dark cases, by nonconsensual exploitation. Evidence of AI-induced carnage to healthy relationships is everywhere and shouldn’t be ignored.
A Cultural Shift Already Underway
But AI is only one of many headwinds facing young Americans considering marriage. Marriage rates have been slowly declining, and a record number of young adults are now delaying or forgoing marriage altogether. It is no surprise that worldwide fertility rates are plummeting. Many Asian and Western nations, including America, are already below the replacement rate.
Therefore, challenges facing American families have become an obvious national security issue. Nations inevitably fail without families to establish and sustain critical foundational communities. Unfortunately, America is slipping into this category, and the creeping devastation is unignorable.
How We Got Here
The origins of this cultural downfall against the family unit date back to American Postmodernism. The “free love” 1960s led to a murderous and suicidal abortion industry. The rapid spread of “no-fault” divorce laws, and the disastrous redefinition of marriage in the US Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, resulted in undeniable cultural, legal and policy changes that have ultimately decimated the family unit.
These destructive cultural shifts, combined with current economic barriers to launching a career and owning a home, are conspiring against young Americans who should be getting married and starting families. If America is to see another 250 years, the nation must come together to restore and encourage that which made her strong in the first place: the family.
What Real Love Requires
True, lasting and committed love, the kind developed over a lifetime and celebrated on Valentine’s Day, is the antidote to these destructive social and relational trends. This is the love between one man and one woman, lived out through the lifelong covenant of marriage and subsequent family building. It comes down to putting our spouses first and prioritizing our children’s needs over our own desires. National policy should provide a flourishing environment for this process.
Although first sparked in the romantic fires of youthful attraction celebrated on Valentine’s Day, love must be encouraged and undergirded by a society that promotes marriage and provides young couples with fertile economic and ideological grounding.
The Uncanny Valley of Artificial Intimacy
Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate enduring love, the exact opposite of agentic and complaisant AI-generated fantasy partners. Although the Alexa commercial is catchy, the deeper implications of normalizing AI as a suitable relational substitute cross into a creepy uncanny valley.
This normalization is already accelerating. Surveys show that many users now describe AI systems as “friends,” and some openly describe emotional attachment and dependency. In a nation already facing loneliness and fragmentation, the temptation to retreat into artificial companionship will only grow stronger. Yet the fundamental truth remains: an algorithm cannot sacrifice, cannot commit, cannot build a household and cannot raise children. AI can simulate affirmation, but it cannot provide the moral responsibility and mutual obligation that make love meaningful. What looks like romance is ultimately a form of consumer convenience.
AI-generated “partners” will not deliver the relational fulfillment they promise and won’t contribute to a sustainable American future. Valentine’s Day is yet another reminder that relationships matter, not only for the souls of individuals but for their families and the future of our nation.
Photo credit: © Getty Images/Candy Retriever
