I've been following QC since 2010, and I knew one day the subject of AI/human romance would have to come up. If the AIs are real people, then I figured that perhaps they would one day seek out intimate companionship. I thought, however, that the introduction of love, sexuality and intimacy would have been introduced between two AIs, rather than between an AI and a human. The latter form of story arch was too fraught with potential cringe-worthy moments and accusations of prurient "fan service."
A pairing between Momo and Marten Reed, for example, would be problematic to say the least, no matter how delicately it was handled. It would seem too close to a bad sort of anime story. Similarly, a human female paired romantically with an AI "male" character would have another possible set of connotations that could detract from the underlying theme of mutual intimacy if it were our first introduction to such a relationship.
The subject of AI/human romance had to emerge at some point in a comic strip set in a world where humans and sapient AIs coexist as equal agents. Jeph Jacques established the groundwork for a romantic relationship between Bubbles and Faye over many, many months. He established the mutual respect, affection, professional interaction, motivations and underlying psychology rather carefully. By the time the reveal happened, most of us were thinking "well, duh, what took you so long?" There was no shock value for the sake of shock value, no prurient titillation or "fan service" involved.
I figure Jeph Jacques handled the introduction of this matter quite well.