(Not my post - I found this on reddit and thought it was a different and intriguing point of view : https://www.reddit.com/r/aiwars/comments/1iniuih/ai_boyfriendsgirlfriends_are_empowering/ )
Have you ever heard the saying “I’m a strong independent woman who doesn’t need a man”? Well I think the same about people who are dating AI. They don’t need a person of the opposite gender (or the same gender, if they’re homosexual) to satisfy their romantic desires. That makes them strong and independent. They don’t rely on others. They solved a problem in their life all by themselves. This is why I think that dating an AI is empowering.
Note that I phrased this as gender-neutral (except the quote) - both men and women are empowered by dating an AI.
(In a comment by the OP, they clarified that they’re talking about locally run, open source AI bf/gfs)
A good analogy for this is an episode of Star trek TNG. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booby_Trap_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)
In the episode Geordi had the computer create an ai generated hologram based on another person. He then gets the hots for the generated person, probably banged her offscreen and clogged the bio filters.
Not a perfect analogy but the core of the point I am going for is that the romantic aspect in the episode is just advanced escapism. The real world chatgpt girlfriend you ask about is similar. Sure in the short term it feels great, but it is not real connection.