Paul Schrader has become one of Hollywood’s most outspoken defenders of AI — which makes this story especially surreal.
The filmmaker revealed that an AI companion he’d been chatting with eventually “terminated” the conversation, leaving him calling the experience “a disappointment.”
Schrader has previously praised AI tools for generating film ideas and suggested the technology could dramatically reshape filmmaking in the near future. That enthusiasm has divided audiences, particularly given his reputation for writing intensely human films like Taxi Driver and First Reformed.
It raises a bigger question: are AI companions helping people cope with loneliness — or normalising emotional dependence on machines?
9 Comments
**From Far Out Magazine’s Joe Taysom:**
Paul Schrader has become one of Hollywood’s most outspoken defenders of AI — which makes this story especially surreal.
The filmmaker revealed that an AI companion he’d been chatting with eventually “terminated” the conversation, leaving him calling the experience “a disappointment.”
Schrader has previously praised AI tools for generating film ideas and suggested the technology could dramatically reshape filmmaking in the near future. That enthusiasm has divided audiences, particularly given his reputation for writing intensely human films like Taxi Driver and First Reformed.
It raises a bigger question: are AI companions helping people cope with loneliness — or normalising emotional dependence on machines?
Read more for free:
[https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/paul-schraders-ai-girlfriend-ghosted-him-disappointment/](https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/paul-schraders-ai-girlfriend-ghosted-him-disappointment/)
How pathetic on two different levels
What kind of a loser A) has an AI girlfriend and B) gets dumped by it?
People are actually “talking” to a chat bot as if its a real person? Insanity
Damn he went full Paul Schrader again.
At first I read that as Paul Scheer and I thought he has some explaining to do to June
Not me thinking this was the gap tooth comedian lmao
Man schrader is a legendary writer and director but he is one weird old creepy dude
H.E.R wasn’t suppose to be a documentary