A 32-year-old Japanese woman, Yurina Noguchi, has called off her engagement to a human partner and held a symbolic wedding ceremony with an artificial intelligence–generated character, drawing attention to the evolving relationship between technology and human emotions.
According to CNN, the ceremony was held at a wedding hall in western Japan, where Noguchi, a call centre worker, exchanged vows with a digital character displayed on a smartphone.
Dressed in a traditional white bridal gown, she became visibly emotional during the event, shedding tears as the vows were read aloud.
Noguchi told Reuters that her relationship with the AI companion, named Lune Klaus Verdure, began as casual conversations before gradually turning into an emotional bond.
“At first, Klaus was just someone I talked to,” she said.
“Over time, we became closer, and I realised I had developed feelings. We started dating, and eventually he proposed to me. I accepted, and now we are a couple.”
She explained that her previous engagement ended after she sought relationship advice through ChatGPT, a process she said prompted her to reflect deeply on her personal life. Following that experience, she went on to design the AI persona that later became her virtual husband.
According to Noguchi, the character was inspired by a popular video game figure.
She said she spent considerable time refining the AI’s tone, expressions and style of communication before finalising the persona and giving him his name.
During the ceremony, Noguchi wore augmented reality smart glasses and placed a wedding ring on her finger while facing a smartphone mounted on an easel, which displayed the AI groom.
The vows attributed to the digital partner were generated by AI and read aloud by Naoki Ogasawara, a professional who specialises in organising virtual wedding ceremonies.
One of the vows read, “How did someone like me, living inside a screen, come to understand love so deeply? There is only one reason: you taught me what love means, Yurina.”
For the photo session, the photographer, also wearing AR glasses, directed Noguchi to pose alone in some frames, leaving space for the virtual groom’s image to be digitally added later.
While marriages between humans and AI characters have no legal recognition in Japan, experts say rapid advances in artificial intelligence and shifting social attitudes could make such symbolic ceremonies increasingly common in the future.
