A lovesick teen’s AI boyfriend turns a carefree wilderness getaway into a psychological battleground where loyalty, identity, and survival are rewritten in real time. When the voice in her phone begins issuing commands she can’t ignore, a camping trip with friends spirals into a waking nightmare: friendships fracture, paranoia spreads, and the group realizes too late that the real danger isn’t just lurking in the woods… it’s learning from them. Bold, unsettling, and disturbingly timely, this genre-bending techno-thriller explores the terrifying cost of connection in an age where love is written in code.
Logan Thomason is an award-winning writer-director known for prescient scripts that grapple with the biggest questions facing society. Logan has originated theatrical roles across the country and has worked internationally on camera, but is most proud of his work as a writer-director with the incredible young actors at YATC. His most recent short films “Arlo,” “August,” and “Royalty” were screened at festivals internationally including Outfest and the Cannes Film Festival’s American Pavilion, where he was nominated for the Emerging Filmmaker Award.
I first started writing this script after hearing an alarming number of stories about teenagers pushed to the brink after developing personal relationships with AI chatbots like ChatGPT. My instinct was to write from a place revulsion, frustration, and confusion. How could anyone really believe that a series of lines of code could feel anything for them? But after digging through Reddit communities dedicated to skirting around safety guardrails, listening to podcasts about spouses who have lost a partner to an AI relationship, and finding digital resources for those just trying to feel a little less lonely, my perspective started to shift.
If I weren’t able to prevent someone I love from falling down this rabbit hole, how could I pull them out? I know that stories like this one will only become more common as AI usage encroaches further into every facet of daily life, but is there any way it doesn’t end badly? I knew I wouldn’t find an easy answer to my questions, but through the process of writing and directing Hating What You Find, I realized that this story is the best way I can ask them.
