What if the thing that feels like connection… is actually just a perfectly designed reflection of you?

In this episode of Real Talk with Realdoll, Nicolle Hodges and Dr. Rachel Needle sit down with Julie Carpenter, PhD, a leading researcher in human–robot interaction and author of Naked Android, to unpack the psychological, cultural, and ethical implications of AI relationships.

From the idea of the "human gaze" to the rise of AI companions, this conversation explores how we're not just using technology, we're forming attachments to it. And those attachments may be more real than we want to admit.

Julie breaks down:
- Why AI relationships feel real, even without true reciprocity
- The concept of "dating a funhouse mirror"
- How AI is designed to simulate desire and emotional connection
- The business incentives behind AI intimacy
- Synthetic mourning and what happens when your AI companion disappears
- Whether AI relationships expose unmet human needs
- The risks of normalizing intimacy built on compliance and predictability

If AI can mirror our desires, what does that reveal about us?

About our guest: Julie Carpenter is a researcher and expert in human–robot interaction whose work explores how people form emotional and psychological relationships with machines. Her latest book, Naked Android, examines intimacy, projection, and identity in the age of AI.

Read her blog (free, no paywall): https://www.jgcarpenter.com/blog.html

About her book: Naked Android by Julie Carpenter is about how and why humans form emotional, psychological, and even intimate relationships with machines—and what that reveals about us. At its core, the book isn't really about robots. It's about human projection, desire, and the systems shaping both. Carpenter uses the concept of the "human gaze" to argue that we don't encounter AI or robots as they are—we encounter them through a lens shaped by culture, expectations, and design. We assume they have intention, emotion, even desire, because they are built to look and respond in ways that trigger those interpretations.

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Naked-Android-Socialness-Artificial-Intelligence-ebook/dp/B0D5VZFQ1V?ref_=ast_author_dp