Orchid: Are We Delegating Relationships to AI?

On 28 July 2026, a startup called Orchid published the launch video for its AI personal assistant on X.

And so far, one might say, nothing special, right? Dozens of them come out every day by now.

Not to mention that the product itself is not revolutionary: a text-based assistant that integrates with calendar, email and other apps, accessible through iMessage as if it were a friend.

So?
What made the debate explode was the story they chose to present it.

A man forgets his anniversary. His partner, frustrated, writes to the Orchid assistant. The assistant notifies the man, who in turn uses Orchid to book a dinner and order a bouquet. Tagline: “The first assistant that truly understands what you need. It remembers what you forget. Down to the flower.”

Three point two million views. More than 600 replies.

All outraged. Are we perhaps crossing the line of what is acceptable for an AI?

What triggered the reaction

The comments split in two directions. The first is direct disgust, with comments referring to Black Mirror and declaring themselves outraged. The second is more precise: “adult babies uninterested in the world they live in.” “An AI to perpetuate a dead relationship that they both secretly hate,” and so on.

And this is an important point because, yes: the process is clear. We are gradually removing responsibility from ourselves, entrusting more and more weight to machines. First that weight was professional, then cognitive. Now it risks becoming emotional.

Because, think about it: a calendar reminds us of anniversaries and birthdays; a little notebook reminds us of things we would have forgotten (such as our girlfriend’s favourite flowers). Nobody is scandalized by that.

And yet the idea of delegating care for one’s relationship to a digital assistant is indeed dystopian. And worrying.

Because the line being crossed is not technological, but human.

And yet the problem is not Orchid

There is a theory that circulated in the comments on the video that is worth taking seriously: “I think they knew exactly what they were doing and hoped the ragebait would work. Unfortunately, it did.”

It is plausible. Three point two million views on a launch video from an unknown startup do not happen by chance.

If that is the case, Orchid deliberately used polarization as a visibility tool. It worked in the most immediate sense: everyone is talking about it. But this does not change the question the video opened, which exists independently of a startup’s launch strategy.

Are we building tools that make it easier not to pay attention, or tools that should support us?

The point, in fact, is not whether these tools are dangerous. They are, but because of us, because an object is always neutral: at most, it exploits hidden corners and insecurities of our mind. The point is what we lose when we use them.

What there really is to fear

The absence of AI Governance and of a real ethical discipline applied to AI is beginning to reveal how critical it is.

Orchid is frightening because it is technologically banal and socially plausible.

This is not an AI developing consciousness or escaping human control. It is a tool that lowers the cost of inattention. Before, forgetting an anniversary had a consequence: conflict, discussion, the moment when someone looked you in the eyes and told you “you don’t think about me anymore”.

For better or worse, we needed that too.

Integrating AI agents into our daily lives, however, flattens every gesture of care, cancelling every feedback loop until it prevents us from learning anything.

And what if one day we found ourselves no longer learning anything from a relationship? Every relationship is a mirror, showing us the truth about the other person, yes, but also and above all about ourselves. Losing this process (essential, especially in adolescence but also later in adulthood) would mean no longer growing emotionally. No longer growing as people.

Am I exaggerating? No, actually I am not. Perhaps, if anything, I am underestimating how dangerous this is.

Not because I believe Orchid will take off (personally, I think it will turn out to be a comet like many others). But its trajectory has shown a direction: and by now that prospect is clear and lucid in everyone’s mind. Sooner or later an AI like the one in the video will arrive. And it will be a problem.

And when it happens, without those uncomfortable and useless conversations that make us better, what kind of human beings will we be?

I am afraid of the answer.