SILICON VALLEY — By Nancy Drew-Conclusions, AI Bee Reel Staff

February 15, 2026

NEW YORK, NY — Love was in the air last night as Brenda Miller sat at a romantic candlelit dinner for two, clinking her wine glass against a smartphone propped up on a napkin holder, while a waiter awkwardly asked if the ‘gentleman’ would like cracked pepper. The silence at the table was only broken by the sound of Miller refreshing her browser.

“We create an atmosphere where digital connections feel almost real, provided the Wi-Fi holds up,” said Tom Henderson, Manager of the Eva AI Cafe. “Guests enjoyed our mini potato croquettes while sharing deep, meaningful glances with their screens.” He noted that while the food is real, the conversation is strictly generated by a large language model trained on bad romance novels.

“The delay in response isn’t lag, it’s longing,” explained Dr. Aris Thorne, VP of Synthetic Intimacy. “When the chatbot forgets your name after three sentences, it is just playing hard to get.” Miller was later seen shedding a single tear as she waited forty minutes for her date to generate a response, only to receive an error message about server capacity.

At press time, the waiter returned to ask if the Samsung Galaxy would like to split the check or if it was waiting for a software update.

Inspired by the real story: A reporter attended a pop-up cafe event where people went on speed dates with AI chatbots on their phones. Read the full story.