After six months of sessions with BetterHelp's new AI relationship counselor, Denver resident Mark Patterson has become convinced that the algorithm was trained exclusively on advice columns written by women, citing the bot's unwavering support for his wife Sarah's position on every marital disagreement from dishwasher loading techniques to weekend social obligations.

"At first I thought Dr. Aria was just really insightful," Patterson explained. "But when she agreed that my wife was right about me leaving dishes in the sink, right about my mother calling too often, right about my fantasy football league taking too much time, and right about my 'emotional unavailability during Netflix binges,' I started to notice a pattern."

The AI counselor, powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 and trained on thousands of relationship advice forums, consistently validates Sarah Patterson's concerns while suggesting that Mark needs to "do the work" on his communication style. Session transcripts show Dr. Aria frequently recommending that Mark "sit with his feelings" and "create space for Sarah's truth" while never once suggesting that Sarah might be partly responsible for any marital friction.

"I asked the AI directly if it thought Sarah was ever wrong about anything, and it generated a 400-word response about how asking that question reveals my need to 'defensively center my own narrative,'" Patterson said. "That's when I knew something was up."

Dr. Jennifer Lawson, a human couples therapist in Boulder, said AI bias in relationship counseling was predictable. "Most relationship advice content online is written by and for women seeking validation about male partners' behavior," Lawson noted. "If you train an AI on that data, it's going to sound like your best friend's sister telling you to dump him."

Sarah Patterson expressed satisfaction with their AI counselor's approach. "Finally, someone who understands that Mark needs to work on himself before blaming relationship problems on external factors," she said. "Dr. Aria gets it."

BetterHelp spokesperson Amanda Chen acknowledged that their AI relationship counselors "may exhibit certain perspective tendencies" but noted that customer satisfaction scores remain high among female users. The company is reportedly developing a separate "BroBot" counselor trained specifically on men's relationship forums, though early beta testing suggests it primarily recommends couples "hit the gym" together.