I guess the availability of effectively limitless AI-based characters that can be designed or tweaked by users will result in a normalized shift away from havin

I guess the availability of effectively limitless AI-based characters that can be designed or tweaked by users will result in a normalized shift away from having "a" girlfriend or boyfriend, and toward maintaining a gamut of virtual relationships, ranging from single-episode encounters to committed long-term romantic chat partners. Once you can cook up any number of chars with any combination of personality, appearance, background, etc. it is unlikely that most users will be interested in a purely monogamous AI relationship. Of course there will be people who "fall in love" with their AI talking doll, but that's a tale as old as Pygmalion.