Ep 78: Marianne Brandon, Ph.D. | Technology is Rewiring Intimacy

What happens to human intimacy when technology becomes easier, more responsive, and more accommodating than another person?

In this episode of Unlatched Mind, Vinny Vallarine sits down with Dr. Marianne Brandon, clinical psychologist, certified sex therapist, and co-host of The Sex Doctors Podcast, for a wide-ranging conversation about technology's rapidly growing influence on sex, relationships, dating, and human connection.

Dr. Brandon has spent nearly 30 years working with individuals and couples. Over the last decade, much of her attention has shifted toward what she sees happening at the intersection of technology and intimacy.

We explore how social media has changed expectations for relationships, why people appear to be having less sex and struggling more with dating, and how constant digital stimulation may be affecting our ability to tolerate boredom, vulnerability, rejection, and the ordinary work required to maintain meaningful relationships.

Then the conversation moves into much newer territory: AI companions, sexual chatbots, connected sex toys, sex robots, and AI agents capable of creating highly personalized emotional and sexual experiences.

As these systems become more sophisticated, they may offer people something no human partner possibly can: unlimited patience, constant availability, no rejection, complete personalization, and an experience designed entirely around the user.

But what happens when we start expecting human beings to compete with that?

Dr. Brandon argues that this may create an especially difficult problem for younger generations who are developing their ideas about sex, romance, attraction, and relationships while surrounded by increasingly powerful technology. Vinny and Marianne discuss pornography and the development of sexual "arousal templates," the potential effects of early exposure to highly stimulating sexual content, and why young people who grow up with AI companionship may not even know what they're missing from traditional human relationships.

The discussion also explores the possible benefits of sexual and companion technology, particularly for people with disabilities, people who are isolated, and those whose sexual interests may be difficult to explore with a partner. But those benefits come with much larger questions about how widespread adoption could affect society.

They also tackle an emerging question that couples and therapists are already confronting:

Can someone cheat on their partner with an AI?

If your spouse develops an emotional or sexual relationship with a chatbot, does that constitute infidelity? And as AI becomes increasingly lifelike, where exactly should couples draw that line?

Later in the episode, the conversation shifts toward Dr. Brandon's clinical work, pornography, libido, relationships, hormone health, testosterone, and the research of her husband, Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, a pioneering researcher in men's health and testosterone therapy.

Connect with Dr. Marianne Brandon

• Subscribe to The Sex Doctors Podcast wherever you get your Podcasts or on youtube at Sex Doctors Pod
• Future of Intimacy Blog
• drbrandon.net