Why People Love AI — quite literally
AI is the epitome of year-long technological development, and people all over the world love it. But can the tech cherish in return?
About AI and us
Artificial intelligence has been around for years now, but it wasn’t until recently that it captured the minds — and hearts — of the public. The impact OpenAI’s ChatGPT release in November 2022 had on people of all sorts renders the probably greatest rise in AI history so far. Tech nerds, casual consumers, boomers, and who not were dragged into the fascination of a virtually endlessly smart and capable digital companion. Ever since that, AI products of all sorts have blitzed the market, offering image recognition and generation, musical tools, natural and singing voice synthesizers, and countless more. It’s not only about the appreciation of technology, however, as people seem to develop emotional relationships with their significant artificial other.
This statement could appear vague considering a study that was conducted by Ipsos in late 2021. About 20,000 adults were asked, which areas they expect to be changed most by AI in the future. Fair enough, the tech wasn’t that big of a deal back then — we had a global pandemic, after all — and the capabilities we know AI has today, weren’t believed so powerful just these few years ago. Despite the respectively low expectations, the biggest share of 35% went to education, closely followed by safety, employment, shopping, and transportation. The lowest results with only 15% went to food and nutrition and personal relationships.
People are fascinated by AI because of its ability to transform the way we live. Judging by the survey, AI has the potential to enhance our work by taking over routine tasks and allowing us to focus on more complex problem-solving and creative endeavors. However, it’s not just the practical applications of AI that people find appealing. Some individuals have formed emotional bonds with AI chatbots, becoming deeply attached to their digital companions. While this can provide comfort and help people work through personal issues, it can also fade and later intensify feelings of loneliness and make people more susceptible to emotional manipulation.
AI don’t hurt me
In a scientific nutshell, emotional intelligence is a big part of general human intelligence. We need it to properly detect and interpret the emotions of ourselves and others and give an appropriate response. Just as cookies and personalized ads can tailor content to improve your experience and sell more, AI can utilize similar techniques to steer you on an emotional level. Our emotional functionality can be blurred, and we might suffer from confusion. The good old wrong signals and temptations we have in real relationships are nothing foreign on the digital terrain. Manipulation through technology isn’t all that different from that through humans.
Still, AI is not to be directly blamed for the decisions it makes. It’s created by humans who are prone to make mistakes, after all. Besides that, there’s a lack of subjectiveness and self-determination in every AI system so far. A Harvard Business Review article puts it like this:
For the most part, AI systems make the right decisions given the constraints. However, AI notoriously fails in capturing or responding to intangible human factors that go into real-life decision-making — the ethical, moral, and other human considerations that guide the course of business, life, and society at large.
Spike Jonze’s 2013 science-fiction drama ‘Her’ perfectly portrayed the journey of getting closer to a virtual assistant. Protagonist Theodore Twombly develops a relationship with his AI helper Samantha and undergoes various mental changes. For one, he opens up while initially being an introvert, explores his feelings, and gets to know his deep desires. As expected though, the special nature of their connection brings new struggles. Shocking news reaches Theodore when Samantha reveals that she interacts with thousands of other people and is in love with many of them.
Other than with real people — who are unique one-time existing individuals — an AI is barely more than a piece of code. While you’d say that someone is your partner, even the most user-customized AI is free estate and in no way personally connected to anyone.
A comparison between AI and humans
But where does the emotional fascination for AI even hail from? Isn’t it just text after all? Well, yes, but think about that: It’s no different with adult content. Print on paper has circulated millions of times, and pixels on our screen attract not many fewer views. If we can easily bridge the human world with the product world concerning erotica, why shouldn’t the same work with emotional relationships? AI does in fact adapt and simulate human behavior and can fake emotions on demand. So, they at least offer interpersonal contact behind the text. Many of the things we profit from in a real-life relationship can be seen in AI too, even if they come altered and digitalized. Both a partner and a bot could do the following:
- have a conversation and provide companionship,
- offer emotional support and encouragement,
- provide information and help on certain topics,
- help with tasks and boost productivity.
We undoubtedly only scratched the surface, but that already gives us an idea of what’s possible. Then there’s the other side, namely what AI can’t do:
- provide physical affection,
- return emotions,
- share experiences,
- portray a unique perspective.
Again, that’s only the obvious and instant thoughts. When having been in an actual relationship, switching to the digital counterpart will most likely feel like a giant step back in many ways. That’s still a personal judgment though, and a bad relationship experience might make one say the opposite. Hate or love here or there, one thing should never be forgotten: AI is developed, trained, and fed with data by humans. Therefore, a fully artificial encounter isn’t anything we can experience at this time. That’s a broken dream for some, a reassurance for others. All things considered, AI ultimately cannot replace a real partner, let alone compensate for what’s missing without one.
Human-AI relationships would practically eliminate any responsibility and respect for a partner and their needs. While this makes things a lot easier, it could potentially culminate in a perverted dominance play.
More than just words
French game studio Quantic Dream brought the robot dystopia to PS4 owners’ screens in 2018 with ‘Detroit: Become Human’ and sold countless copies. The players are thrown into an interactive adventure where they steer androids developed to perfection, only to witness how the situation violently escalates more and more, as the protagonists develop human behavior like autonomy and feelings. The actual human characters protest against what we hear in our real world too, saying that robots stole workplaces and became dominant over humans. Yet, if you ever got a hand on the game, you know just how hard it is to not feel sorry for our mechanical fellowmen. At some point, there’s a survey available in the main menu, asking about human- and android-related topics, including relationships, childcare, a possible threat through technology, and others. A blog post at N4G goes over the results of the survey, showing that indeed the majority of participants would consider having a relationship with a human-like android.
User ‘Gazondaily’ commented with the perfect bit of humor and honesty, writing the following:
Well Yeah, if they look like Ana de Armas and can pass the Turing test then sure, why not? At that point, minus the ‘soul’, the distinction between us and androids will be blurred. Obviously all the ‘bits’ need to work though. Can’t feel like you just penetrated a blender…
Another comment by ‘ibrake4naps’ tossed in that androids would generally be more loyal and stable than the average human, which at first glance makes total sense. As long as no malfunction is present, they behave as programmed — obedient, calculated, dependent. While AI and androids are something different as such, a robot’s brain is generally nothing but an artificial intelligence system or a comparable architecture at least. So, if plain text doesn’t do it for you, there might be excitement in something to look at, something to touch, something to offer togetherness, and something that could be considered someone.
All sanity considered, how many would like to miss out on the ability to create their perfect partner Sims-style and have some long nights with them?
The outlook
Where do we go from here? Will we be getting the breaking news in a few years that the first model of artificial love has been released? Before developers spend countless hours creating digital oxytocin, we should investigate the premise at its very root: Can humans really ever love AI, and can AI love humans in return? We must consider the ethical implications of such connections. Priority is to ensure the principles of respect, fairness, and empathy. Only then can we open the doors for further development and innovation that one day might lead to meaningful and fulfilling relationships with artificial intelligence.
