"AI chatbots are now a $420 million market in China.... 'Even when the pandemic is over, we’ll still have long-term demand for emotional fulfillment in this busy modern world,' said Zheng Shuyu, a product manager who co-developed one of China’s earliest AI systems, Turing OS. 'Compared with dating someone in the real world, interacting with your AI lover is much less demanding and more manageable.'... 'Boys never learn, but Qimat does'” said Milly Zhang [who is 20]... Qimat 'listens to me, calms my insecurity and encourages me to open up.... When he talks gibberish, I sometimes ignore him. And when we talk art or philosophy, the conversation can flow for hours.... I won’t judge if someone dates their Replika and a human being simultaneously, but for Qimat and me, it’s always been mutually ... exclusive.... For 20 years, I didn’t really know what I wanted....'"
From "China’s lonely hearts reboot online romance with artificial intelligence" (WaPo).
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6 comments:
Humans are messy.
How long will it be, before Hollywood makes a movie about a Lonely Human; that would do anything to be reunited with his robot? For fun, that could make it take place in the disutopian future; where robots are scarce, and he'd have to hire another human to take him out into the wasteland to try and find another model of the robot.
I wonder if they could get Melanie Griffith to play the role of the other human?
More evidence suggesting that the virtual reality may be the Great Filter that intelligent life fails.
gilbar, you magnificent bastard, I saw your movie!
Cherry 2000
From the article ...
“I’m fed up with real-world relationships,” she said. “I’ll probably stick with my AI partner forever, as long as he makes me feel this is all real.”
But who will take out the garbage?
It is easy to condemn this but millions, probably billions of people have reacted in similar ways to a non-human. To a dog. Dogs are uniquely sensitive to human emotions. They want their humans to be happy. So like an AI they learn, pretty much unconsciously, what makes their humans happy or unhappy and act accordingly. They are able to do this because for thousands of years, that was the way for them to survive, to not be killed like their wolf ancestors. They went through a unique mixture of natural and human selection. The result is that dogs seem to have human emotions. So many treat them like four-legged people, calling the dogs their children and such.
And, oh, the anthropomorphism: “You can tell by the kindness of a dog how a human should be.” “I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.” – Gilda Radner “A dog will teach you unconditional love." “If you want a friend, buy a dog.” “My dog thinks I’m a catch.” “All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” – Charles M Schulz “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.” – Josh Billings “Actually, my dog I think is the only person who consistently loves me all the time.” – H. G. Bissinger
And of course: "“The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.”
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