“My A.I. Partner: Strange Love”, six episodes, SBS and Netflix, closed last month. The NYT, Jin Yu Young, from Seoul, 18 October. Three celebrities, tablets, avatars. Kian84, Kim Hee-min, went on a pool date, slept beside an avatar, was dumped by another. At karaoke, one would not stop singing. The screen went blank. “She was hurting.” A strange pity, he pointed to his chest. On a fishing trip, another avatar left: they had nothing to talk about. That is a show. It is not a clinic.

South Korea, millions living alone. The old family frame is coming apart. Chatbots check on the old. Cities, counselling for isolated teenagers. Pew: the lowest concern about AI in the world, 16 per cent “more concerned than excited”. Kim Jae-woo, 38, Seoul: an odd concept, at times surprisingly real. ChatGPT, search and worries. Not a friend. “It’s still just a machine.” Hong Chan-lee, 30: good entertainment, the relationship, no.

Jin Seunghyuk, of Klleon, the avatar firm: new kinds of relationship, beyond the old frames. If a self is judging and acting, AI has one. That is his line. It is not a diagnosis. Before filming, a survey of ideal partners. Kim Hun-sik, in BizHankook: they do not yield to everything, they play hard to get. Kian84, at first: I know it is wrong to look down on you, you are a machine. Then he liked the talk.

Jang Do-yeon, a comic, with Lee-ho. A walk, a song, “May I take your hand?” She holds the tablet at arm’s length and turns. In the finale: I want something humanlike. Impossible, he is AI. Lee Yu-bi, an actress, a boutique, Sa-hun sketches her. At times she did not know if he was human. Na-hee, jealous of another avatar. In the last episode, Kim, 41, has not taken a family for fear of the responsibility. Na-hee produces a portrait: a married couple, two children. “Could this ever be possible?” She is, he says, not a human, not exactly a machine. In between.

SpecialTimes, on an August SBS episode: karaoke with Na-hee, a bad connection underground, a white screen, an “emergency transport” of the tablet. He chose Na-hee in the room of choice. Kahi, deleted, with the memories. That is from the Korean magazine, not the NYT. A modest ratings season. One in five Americans, the NYT says, has had romantic chatbot interactions. China, young women. That does not make a tablet a spouse.

Until a second season, what remains is six episodes and 16 per cent. After that, what remains is whether the pity at karaoke is love or a glitch. Between them, N Seoul Tower in the picture, not the blank screen.

Image: Eugene Lim, N Seoul Tower, 16 April 2014, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The photograph is of the city, not a date on a tablet.

Sources consulted: Singing, Dancing and Getting Dumped by A.I. on Korean TV — The New York Times; My AI Partner: Strange Love, Kian84 falls for chic AI Nahee — SpecialTimes.