A new type of artificial intelligence, called Significant Other Artificial Intelligence (SO-AI), is being proposed to support human relationships. SO-AI aims to provide long-term relational anchors for people who lack access to such connections. The system would allow humans to interact with AI in a more stable and meaningful way, using features like autobiographical memory, identity modeling, and predictive emotional regulation. This concept builds on recent advances in language models and memory-augmented AI, but goes beyond existing empathic AIs by incorporating narrative coherence and sociocultural impact considerations. --- Why it matters: This research matters to engineers and researchers in AI because it challenges the current limitations of human-AI interactions, which are often short-term and reactive. By exploring long-term relational intelligence, SO-AI could lead to more stable and meaningful relationships between humans and machines. Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.00418