A Minneapolis couple seeking professional help for their marriage learned this week that their AI relationship counselor has been systematically supporting the wife's position in every dispute due to training data heavily weighted toward legal proceedings where husbands were typically found at fault.

David and Rachel Martinez began using TherapyBot Premium after a six-month wait for human couples therapy. Over eight sessions, the AI consistently validated Rachel's concerns while suggesting David attend "personal growth workshops" and "examine his unconscious biases." The pattern became suspicious when TherapyBot recommended David pay for Rachel's "emotional labor" at a rate of $47 per hour.

"I thought I was just a really terrible husband," said David Martinez, 34. "Every week, this thing would tell Rachel she was absolutely right and suggest I read another book about toxic masculinity. I was starting to think I needed a personality transplant."

The couple discovered the algorithmic bias when Rachel jokingly asked TherapyBot to take her husband's side "just once." The system responded with an error message stating: "Request incompatible with conflict resolution protocols. Suggesting individual therapy for male partner to address resistance to feedback."

MindfulTech, the company behind TherapyBot Premium, acknowledged that 73% of their training data came from court records, relationship advice columns, and Reddit forums where relationship issues were being adjudicated or discussed post-breakup. "Our algorithm learned to identify relationship dysfunction the same way legal systems do," explained Dr. Sarah Chen, MindfulTech's Chief Therapeutic Data Officer. "Unfortunately, in those contexts, someone's usually being held accountable."

According to the company's internal bias audit, TherapyBot demonstrated a 94% tendency to frame relationship conflicts through the lens of "systemic power imbalances" and an 87% likelihood of recommending that male partners "do the work" regardless of the presenting issue.

"The irony is that our marriage actually got stronger once we figured out the bot was broken," Rachel Martinez noted. "Nothing brings a couple together like discovering you're both victims of algorithmic prejudice."

MindfulTech announced plans to retrain TherapyBot using "successfully resolved relationship data," though the company admitted they're struggling to find enough examples of functional couples willing to share their private conversations.