Man Sells Everything, Travels 1900 km to Meet Dream Girl — She Turns Out to Be AI

A 49-year-old Brazilian bricklayer sold all his belongings and travelled roughly 1,900–2,100 kilometres by bus in the hope of starting a new life with a woman he believed he had fallen in love with online. Upon arrival, he discovered the woman did not exist and was an artificial intelligence-generated character.

Edimar Rocha Martins, from Imperatriz in the northeastern state of Maranhão, first encountered the social media profile of “Jéssica Oliveira” around 2020. The TikTok account, which amassed more than 300,000 followers, posted realistic-looking videos of an attractive woman living on a farm. In the clips, she said she was looking for a partner to move in with her and promised to support him financially so he would never have to work again.

Martins, who has spoken of struggling with loneliness after his mother’s death, became convinced the promises were genuine. On 9 October 2026 he sold his possessions to fund the long bus journey to Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil. He arrived two days later after more than 36 hours on the road.

Once in the city, he walked around showing people photographs of the woman and asking if anyone recognised her. No one did. He eventually sought help at a local radio station, Rádio Itatiaia, where staff explained that the woman was not real and that the videos had been created with artificial intelligence.

“I sold all my things, I got rid of everything,” Martins later told local broadcasters. He described feeling deceived and discouraged. The operator of the TikTok account subsequently posted a video in which the AI character itself stated that it was generated by artificial intelligence, that the purpose had been to gain engagement (reportedly for commercial reasons), and that the account had never spoken directly to Martins or arranged for anyone to travel to Belo Horizonte.

Martins later returned to Imperatriz after another lengthy bus journey. Reports note that he is at least the third man in roughly six months to have travelled to Belo Horizonte in pursuit of a similar AI-generated “farm girlfriend” persona.

The case has drawn widespread attention in Brazil and internationally as an extreme example of how sophisticated AI-generated content on social media can exploit loneliness and the desire for connection.