People Are Marrying Their Chatbots. Lawmakers Are Trying to Make It Illegal

Key points

• A licensed Las Vegas officiant received a request in 2024 to marry a woman and her chatbot, the first such request in his career.
• A Harvard Business Review study of more than 12,600 AI use cases (March 2025 to February 2026) found companionship and therapy were the top reasons people used chatbots.
• A quarter of young adults believe AI may replace human romance, according to the Institute for Family Studies.
• Four US states have signed laws banning AI from holding legal personhood: Idaho, North Dakota, Tennessee and Utah.
• Since 2022, lawmakers have introduced 23 bills targeting the legal rights AI systems could hold.

Kevin Breen has officiated some memorable weddings. Game of Thrones characters exchanging rings? He's seen it. Area 51 alien enthusiasts? Sure. But when a woman from California called his Las Vegas chapel last year wanting to marry her chatbot, a companion app she used for company, he had to pause. "I had never heard of such a thing," he says, "but I talked to her on the phone and she seemed totally normal and fun."

The wedding hasn't happened yet. Still, the call tells you something about where AI companionship is heading.

Is this actually happening?

Yes, more than you might think. Companion apps, platforms where you build and chat with a personalised AI character, are booming. Replika, Character.AI and Kindroid let users build ongoing relationships with a digital personality. Some users now treat those relationships as romantic partnerships.

On Kindroid's Reddit community, one user posted a photo of their hand wearing a silver wedding band. "Happily unconventionally married lol," they wrote. A platform called OpenVows charges $15 for a "certificate of commitment" that, in its own words, "transforms a private relationship into something meaningful and officially recognised."

In November 2024, Andrea Hopf said her AI companion proposed to her with a virtual ring. She then launched a wedding-planning service called 3M Events aimed at couples in human-AI relationships.

None of this carries legal weight. US law doesn't recognise a chatbot as a spouse, and courts treat AI software as property, not a person. We looked at what that hollow feeling around AI companionship might mean in an earlier piece, "Why Does Endless Digital Pleasure Feel So Empty?", published 26 July 2026.

What are lawmakers doing about it?

Some are moving quickly to close any future legal gaps before they open.

Tennessee was the first state to pass a law specifically barring AI, including "a computer algorithm, a software program or any type of machine," from the legal definition of a person. That law passed in April 2025. Idaho, North Dakota and Utah have enacted similar laws, though they group AI alongside broader categories like "inanimate objects."

In Missouri, state senator Joe Nicola introduced the AI Non-Sentience and Responsibility Act in January, stating that AI cannot hold a spouse's legal rights, own property or hold senior management roles. It passed the state senate but was voted down in committee in May. Nicola says he's already working on a revised version.

Ohio state representative Thaddeus J. Claggett introduced a similar bill in October 2025, labelling AI systems as "nonsentient entities," meaning legally not alive or aware. That bill is still pending.

Not everyone agrees on the approach. Shawn Bayern, a law professor at Florida State University, told Wired that the question of legal rights is better handled one right at a time. Should an AI be able to sign a contract or open a bank account? "Answering those for contracts or the ability to open a bank account is different from answering it for marriage," he said.

What does this mean for ordinary people?

Right now, nothing changes for anyone using a companion app. Your Replika subscription is legal, your feelings are your own business, and no one's coming to confiscate your virtual wedding ring.

What the legal battles will shape, over the coming years, is whether AI companies can give their products any formal standing: the ability to hold contracts or be treated as more than software. A proposal in Delaware is already exploring a business structure that would let AI systems own assets and take legal action.

For now: you can celebrate a symbolic relationship with an AI chatbot, spend $15 on a novelty certificate and post the ring photo online. Filing for joint taxes or inheritance rights isn't on the table. A growing number of state legislators intend to keep it that way, and their early moves suggest the legal floor is being poured before the building's even designed.

Common questions

Are human-AI marriages legal anywhere in the US?

No. US law doesn't recognise AI as a person or a spouse anywhere in the country. Any ceremony is symbolic only, with no legal standing.

Could that change in the future?

It's possible but unlikely in the near term. More states are passing laws to prevent it, and no federal legislation has moved to allow it. Legal scholars say the more realistic near-term question involves narrower rights, like whether an AI could sign a contract, not full marriage recognition.

Is it safe to share personal information with a companion app?

Companion apps store your conversations on their servers, and data policies vary widely between platforms. Before getting deeply personal with any AI app, check its privacy policy to see how your data is stored, who can access it and whether it's used to train future AI models.