The development of bad news via SMS
Spreen’s message is the first time we’ve seen an AI-mediated relationship breakup, but it likely won’t be the last. As the Apple Intelligence feature rolls out widely and other tech companies embrace AI message summarization, many people will likely soon receive bad news through AI summaries. For example, since March, Google’s Android Auto AI has been able to provide overviews to users while driving.
If that sounds terrifying, consider our ever-evolving social tolerance for technological advances. Back in the 2000s, when texting was still new, some etiquette experts considered breaking up a relationship over text to be unforgivably rude, and it was unusual enough to generate a Reuters news story. The sentiment apparently spread to Americans in general: According to The Washington Post, a 2007 survey commissioned by Samsung found that only about 11 percent of Americans thought it was OK to break up that way.
This is what texting looked like back then.
In 2009, as texting became more common, attitudes toward texting violations began to soften. That year, ABC News quoted Kristina Grish, author of “The Joy of Text: Mating, Dating, and Techno-Relating,” as saying, “When Britney Spears dumped Kevin Federline, I thought it was an abomination to do it via sms was insensitive and without reason.” Grish was referring to a 2006 incident with the pop singer that made headlines. “But it’s now gotten to the point where our cell phones and BlackBerries are an extension of ourselves and our personality. It’s not unusual for people to become so disconnected in this way.”
Today, when texting is basically the default way most adults communicate externally, breaking up via text is common enough that Cosmopolitan endorsed the practice in a 2023 article. “I can confidently tell you as an experienced professional in romantic failure, that of those options I’d take the breakup any day,” wrote Kayle Kibbe.
Who knows, maybe in the future people will be able to ask their personal AI assistants to contact their boyfriend or girlfriend directly to deliver a personal breakup for them with a sensitive message trying to lighten the blow. But what’s next – break-ups on the moon?
This article was updated at 15:33 on 10 October 2024 to clarify that the ex-boyfriend’s full real name has not been revealed by the screenshot.