Technology and Development Seminar: Love Machines

Book Launch: Love Machines by James Muldoon

Technology, Inequality and Development Research Group Seminar

Join us for the launch of Love Machines by James Muldoon — a research into the strange, compelling frontier of human–AI intimacy. Friends, lovers, therapists, even ‘deathbots’: artificial intelligence is rapidly assuming roles once held by people, transforming how we relate to technology — and to each other. As well as the familiar use of AI for everyday tasks, Muldoon reveals a world in which some prepare to raise children with digital partners, others turn to firms promising to ‘resurrect’ the dead, and many seek solace or therapy from chatbots.

During the launch, Muldoon will guide us through the book’s vivid investigations into these new forms of attachment, shaped by interviews with users, developers and the chatbots themselves. He uncovers the social forces driving the explosive growth of AI companionship and exposes the corporations seeking to capitalise on our desires for connection. Join us to explore a future already taking shape — uncanny, intimate and urgently in need of reflection.

James Muldoon is a sociologist whose work explores the human side of artificial intelligence and other technologies. He is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Management at the Essex Business School and a Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute. He is the author of Platform Socialism (2022) and co-author of Feeding the Machine (2024).