A 49-year-old bricklayer from Brazil sold his belongings and travelled nearly 2,000 km to meet the woman he believed he would marry, only to discover that his online girlfriend was an artificial intelligence-generated character. Edimar Martins, from Maranhão in northeastern Brazil, had been following a social media profile featuring a woman named Jessica Oliveira since 2020. Believing the relationship was genuine, he decided to travel to Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil to meet her in person.
The journey ended in heartbreak after Martins failed to find the woman and was told that she did not exist. He was left facing financial hardship after selling his possessions to pay for the trip.
