Shocking number of pet owners would date AI versions of their animals, study reveals

Yahoo

4 days ago

Man's best friend, indeed!
As generative AI becomes more commonplace — people are asking the tool to do everything from creating grocery lists to writing love poems — so, too, do the ridiculous social media trends.
Most recently, pet owners on TikTok looked to ChatGPT to strangely turn their dogs into humans.
Bizarre as the trend is, pet owners' eccentricity doesn't stop there.
A recent MetLife survey polled 1,000 individuals on various questions that explored how deeply people's lives are influenced by their pets, and — spoiler alert — some people are very invested in their furry friends.
Of the respondents who were familiar with the anthropomorphic trend, 31% admitted that they would date the human version of their pet.
Curiously, millennials, Gen Xers, and baby boomers were significantly more likely to do so — with millennials at 34% and the older two generations at 33% — while zoomers were far less favorable, at 24%.
Romance wasn't — theoretically — in the air for all pet owners, though.
Nearly 40% of animal enthusiasts admitted that their pet would be a 'walking red flag' if they were human.
Despite some of their furry friends' naughtier traits, these pet parents are beyond attached to their animals — in many cases, animal experts believe this to be a side effect of quarantine and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, an overwhelming 87% of pet owners would be willing to give up their dream apartment if it weren't pet-friendly.
Forget dating their pets — some ultra-devoted pet owners are basically married to them.
'The value of pets for their human caregivers appears to be very high, comparable to … meeting with friends and relatives on a regular basis, or even with being married,' wrote the authors of a 2025 study on the subject.
Corroborating that sentiment, 77% of pet owners who took part in the survey said that their pet offers better emotional support than their previous human partner.
'Instead of giving my husband, Alex, a kiss, I wake up and give [my dog] all my kisses,' Elsie, 44, a divorce attorney from Jersey City, New Jersey, previously told The Post.
'It's the same before we go to sleep at night.'
It's nothing personal. Elsie loves her husband, but as many pet parents maintain, there's just nothing like the affection and loyalty of an animal.