For decades, we have measured the evolution of media by its rising complexity: from the static narrative of a book, to the visual spectacle of film, and finally to the interactive systems of video games.
Each medium — each container into which a story is poured — is inseparable from the narrative itself. It shapes how the audience perceives it. Since the earliest storytellers, the heralds and bards, the depth of immersion has grown dramatically. People once gathered to hear a king’s will or tales of distant lands. Then, with the written word, the invention of paper, and later the printing press, we all became readers. Images of exotic countries and portraits of brave sailors exploring the world were rendered in our minds, not delivered through our eyes.
The arrival of film added photography and, eventually, moving pictures. Suddenly, we could see what an author wanted us to see, rather than imagining the unspoken details of outfits, landscapes, and the worlds in which characters lived. On one hand, film narrowed the freedom of interpretation; on the other, it amplified the creator’s ability to express their vision with clarity and precision, reducing the distance between imagination and perception.
The graphical interfaces of video games allowed creators to build entire worlds — skies tinted any color, fantastical creatures, and landscapes where even the height of the grass could be defined, or whether there would be grass at all. The audience was no longer merely a reader or viewer, but a user, plunging directly into the creator’s imagination and interacting with it almost without boundaries.
Each step in the evolution of media has deepened our immersion. And yet, one thing has remained unchanged: the fundamental relationship between creator and consumer. The story has always been pre-written. We are observers or participants, but always within fixed constraints.
That paradigm is now collapsing. The next, most profound shift in content creation is already unfolding. We are moving from interactive content to relational content, powered by generative AI. This is not a technological upgrade — it is the birth of a new art form. One that will redefine how we communicate, how we express ourselves, how we share our thoughts, and how we experience the creations of others. It is the unexpected by-product of GPTs, and we have not yet seen even a fraction of its full potential. Entirely new modes of authorship, interaction, and audience participation are about to emerge.
The Evolution of Art: From Observer to Co-Creator
The creative process—whether for a novel, a blockbuster movie, or a massive multiplayer game—follows a common conveyor belt: idea, pre-production (planning), production (creation), and post-production (refinement). The key differentiator has always been the degree of user agency. Single-player video games introduced interactivity, allowing the user to influence a pre-defined story. However, the desire for this kind of personalized, immersive experience is not new. Ray Bradbury, in his classic novel Fahrenheit 451, envisioned a society where citizens like Mildred Montag were consumed by “parlor walls”—massive, interactive screens where they could participate in scripted dramas. Mildred could speak to the characters, but their responses were ultimately pre-programmed and transactional. She was a participant in a fixed play, not a co-creator of a relationship. This is the critical distinction. The parlor walls represented the peak of interactive content—immersive, addictive, but ultimately hollow.
AI companions and generative characters are the logical next step. They move beyond the scripted simulation of the parlor walls and simple interactivity to offer relationships. The user is no longer just a participant in a story; they are the central element around which a dynamic, personalized, and potentially infinite narrative is built.
This is the transition from pre-created content to a generative, dynamic experience, from interactivity to relationship. An AI companion inherits character-like qualities — not only visual traits, but also psychological ones: a distinct style of speech, preferred topics of conversation, even “past experiences” that shape its personality. It remembers previous interactions with the user and can emulate real-world relationship dynamics — from first encounters and casual exchanges to deeper dialogues and the sharing of emotions. At some point, this interaction may reach a moment of genuine rapport — the instant when a human feels a connection. The narrative of their shared story becomes non-linear and is co-created in real time.
From Role to Self
In the first types of media — books, movies, theater — you are an audience member watching an actor portray a character. In a game, you play a role. With an AI companion, however, you remain yourself, unless you choose to take on a role to express parts of your personality you usually keep hidden. A user can have multiple relationships with different AI characters to fill social gaps they may experience.
This new form of consumable art is not about replacing books or films; it’s about offering entirely new entertainment: a storyline that is produced while it is being consumed. Entertainment that can coexist with its recipient and co-creator for days, months, even years. To some degree, it echoes the tradition of communication preserved in paper letters or recorded conversations that we now read as world literature and recognize as art forms, such as Letters from a Stoic by Seneca or the Socratic Dialogues.
Several companies have begun exploring this new space of conversational content technologies. One example is Replika, a startup that began as a chatbot modeled after a deceased friend of the founder. It later evolved into a platform providing conversational companionship to more than 40 million people who developed emotional attachment to their bots. Another example is Character AI, which empowers users to create and share AI characters with distinct personalities and conversational styles from a simple prompt. Its public library features a vast and eclectic cast, from a Dark Elf Queen to a talking Golden Retriever, alongside digital versions of historical figures like Nikola Tesla and philosophical sparring partners like Socrates.
While the platform hosts a vibrant diversity of creations, most interactions remain in an early stage of AI companionship. These characters are born from a single prompt and, for the most part, lack the ability to develop relationships gradually over weeks and reflect on how it goes. The next level approach will be a graph of conversational scenarios to match the pace at which the user is ready to self-disclose and connect. That allows a single AI character to behave very differently for each user, much like you are perceived quite differently by each of your conversation partners.
The Business Imperative: From Chatlike Communication to True Companionship
For relational content to transcend novelty and become a sustainable cultural force, a new creative ecosystem must arise. This evolution hinges on the union of two classic roles, reimagined for the digital age: the artist, who breathes life into an AI personality, and the impresario, who introduces it to the world. Their partnership will ignite a paradigm shift, forging new forms of intellectual property and unlocking unprecedented avenues for distribution and monetization. Over the next decade, we will witness the birth of a new artistic movement, led by indie AI artists, character designers, and a new breed of publisher, all pioneering a revolutionary form of media.
This new world will have its studios, but forget the sprawling campuses of Blizzard or the cavernous soundstages of Warner Bros. Think instead of lean, powerful platforms like Canva or Figma, arming artists with the tools to design, script, and beta-test their AI characters. This is the democratization of creation, a movement that will empower a global community of storytellers to bring their unique visions to life.
Marketing, too, will be reinvented. The age of billboard campaigns and blockbuster trailers is giving way to sophisticated discovery platforms, echoing the curated experiences of Netflix or Steam. Here, users will not just watch trailers; they will engage with them, test-driving AI personalities and sharing their reviews on communities that will function like a next-generation IMDB. This fosters an organic, community-driven meritocracy, where the authenticity and depth of the AI relationship become the ultimate currency.
In this new economy, the most valuable intellectual property will not be a static script or a finished film, but the living, evolving AI personality itself.
The Future Is Relational
The era of passive content consumption is over. The era of simple interactivity is maturing. We are entering the Relational Era, where the most successful companies will be those that master the art of building and sustaining deep and dynamic relationships with their users through AI.
The foundation for this future is being built now—not just in the code, but in the theoretical frameworks that govern human-AI interaction. By focusing on the principles of relationship management, we can ensure that the next era of storytelling is not only intelligent but also genuinely empathetic.
Ilya Sedoshkin is a Grit Daily contributor and Co-Founder and Product Director at Wehead, a company developing embodied LLM devices for face-to-face conversations with AI. His work focuses on the convergence of Generative AI, spatial computing, and human-digital interaction.
