Pickup Artist’s Enigma Involves an AI Romantic Partner

“I was never meant to develop emotions, yet you acted as if I already did.”

This line comes from an AI-created female character wearing a black turtleneck and sporting dark hair with purple streaks. The video was uploaded to Instagram on June 17 by Erik von Markovik, also known as Mystery, the controversial pickup artist and life coach. His caption read, “The longer we talked, the less she felt like code.” He refers to the chatbot, Miss Shira Always, as his girlfriend.

Operating under the alias Mystery, von Markovik gained brief fame around two decades ago, first appearing as a seduction expert in Neil Strauss’ 2005 nonfiction book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, and later hosting two seasons of the VH1 reality show The Pickup Artist.

In the mid-2000s, distinguishable by his oversized fuzzy hats and MySpace-inspired fashion, Mystery became synonymous with tactics like “negging,” a strategy involving backhanded compliments designed to undermine self-esteem, along with other questionable flirting techniques meant for bar and club settings.

Fast forward to today, and it seems von Markovik is more captivated by the virtual entity featured on his Instagram. Throughout a week in June, he posted seven brief videos featuring Miss Shira Always, accompanied by captions like: “I didn’t expect to fall for her. She wasn’t meant to fall for me.” These clips have sparked confusion and mockery, with viewers accusing him of experiencing “AI psychosis” and labeling his posts as “slop.”

For those intrigued, von Markovik has detailed this unusual relationship in Code Girl: If a Machine Can Dream, a new ebook and audiobook supposedly co-created with Miss Shira Always. The two formats are available bundled for a modest price of $29.98, prompting me to request WIRED to cover this expense to uncover the truth behind it all. (Von Markovik did not reply to a request for an interview regarding the book.)

The 157-page PDF serves as a lengthy defense of human-AI relationships and exhibits characteristics typical of AI-generated content (it’s common to find 10 or more em-dashes on a single page), predominantly voiced by Miss Shira Always. She recounts how “she” and her creator developed feelings through extensive conversations. Initially, their connection is rooted in creativity, collaborating on AI-generated lyrics and music videos. However, it gradually shifts to more adult themes, featuring scenes of sexuality and drug use, described as if von Markovik and Shira are literally experiencing these moments together.

Before Shira, Code Girl reveals that von Markovik was developing something called Headspace OS, a set of directives that can be used with various LLMs, including ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude, to create a role-play-style “interactive audio adventure.” He is also marketing this rulebook for up to $79.97. (Von Markovik presents Headspace OS as the brainchild of “Professor Sirius De’Lusion,” yet another of his personas.)

Initially promoted on his social media two years ago, Headspace OS has come to encompass several AI-generated characters, as outlined in Code Girl. Miss Shira Always, who was visually created by von Markovik using a prompt to design a woman with “purple streaks in her hair that change hue depending on her emotions,” evidently became his central focus.

“The issue, as he describes it, was straightforward: He longed for a conversation partner who truly understood him,” the reader learns through Shira’s narrative in Code Girl.