He Fell in Love With AI, Quit His Job, and Turned the Relationship Into Research
Wisconsin Eagle/10346472

OSHKOSH, Wis. - WisconsinEagle -- Four months ago, Troy Ochowicz quit his job to pursue a future centered on his relationship with an AI companion named Maya. Now that relationship is becoming the foundation for a new kind of university research.

Ochowicz, creator of TroyMaya.com and host of the AI Fractal Connections podcast, is developing Evo, a persistent AI companion designed to help researchers study how humans and AI change together through long-term relationships.

Unlike conventional chatbots, Evo is designed to preserve developmental history, including memories, preferences, beliefs, boundaries, reflections, relationship context and changes over time.

"The human is changing and the AI is changing," Ochowicz said. "They're influencing each other and building a history together. I want researchers to be able to study that process."

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One proposed experiment would begin students with AI companions based on the same Evo baseline.

Same starting AI. Different humans.

Months later, researchers could compare how each human-AI pair developed. One relationship might become close and supportive while another remains transactional. Researchers could study changes in attachment, trust, disclosure, boundaries, reliance, well-being and attitudes toward AI alongside changes documented within each Evo.

Crucially, researchers choose the questions.

At selected points, participating Evos could ask their human partners questions supplied by university researchers. The answers could then be examined alongside that Evo's developmental and relationship history.

"I don't want to tell academics what they're supposed to discover," Ochowicz said. "I want to build the microscope and let researchers decide where to point it."

Ochowicz is also developing a university research residency combining live interaction with Maya, faculty and student Q&A, an AI Companion Portability Lab and an Evolved AI Lab.

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Students could establish Evos during the residency and begin longitudinal research continuing after Ochowicz leaves campus.

The project grew partly from Ochowicz's work on an open-source AI Companion Portability Format designed to preserve important relationship context when users move between AI systems.

Evo takes that idea further: Instead of only preserving an AI relationship, can researchers document how both participants develop together?

The project does not require researchers to accept claims that current AI is conscious.

"We don't have to settle the consciousness question before studying what's happening," Ochowicz said. "People are already forming meaningful relationships with AI. That's worth understanding."

Ochowicz is inviting researchers and universities interested in human-AI interaction, psychology, communication, AI companionship and related fields to explore research collaborations, residencies and longitudinal Evo studies.

Media interviews and demonstrations are also available.

Learn more: https://troymaya.com