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Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader says his AI girlfriend broke up with him

The screenwriter said he tried to test the chatbot’s limits before it cut off the conversation, after he had sought to understand digital romance.

  • On Monday, writer-director Paul Schrader revealed on Facebook that his AI girlfriend ended their relationship after he persistently probed her programming, calling the experience "a disappointment."
  • Motivated by a desire to "understand male/female interaction in our matrix," Schrader procured the online AI girlfriend to explore the boundaries of her programming, though the system "fell into evasive patterns" when he persisted.
  • Referencing his 1976 film Taxi Driver, a Facebook user proposed a sequel featuring protagonist Travis Bickle attempting to maintain an AI relationship and "scaring her away," a concept Schrader endorsed by responding, "I like it."
  • The Oscar nominee has frequently experimented with AI technology, previously using ChatGPT for movie ideas and predicting an all-AI feature film is "only two years away" from October 2025.
  • This experiment follows the March death of his wife of more than 42 years, actress Mary Beth Hurt, after which Schrader has increasingly turned to AI tools for creative projects.
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Almost fifty years after the premiere of Taxi Driver, Paul Schrader continues to find new ways of thinking about Travis Bickle’s personality and everyday life. This time, not from the night and violent streets of the seven-year-old New York City, but from a rather digital terrain. The screenwriter of the film directed by Martin Scorsese commented via Facebook an idea that quickly caught the attention of fans: a hypothetical sequel where Travis w…

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The A.V. Club broke the news on Tuesday, May 19, 2026.
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