love is fake Real?
As artificial intelligence continues to cause mayhem in an increasingly digital world, with robots taking over traditional human jobs, a new “AI” is emerging as a dire threat to the fragile emotions of humanity.
AI: Artificial Intimacy.
“I work on machines that say, ‘I care about you, I love you, take care of me,'” says MIT sociologist and psychologist Sherry Turkle. Explained to NPR Robots programmed to feign compassion and friendship.
“The problem with this is that when we seek relationships without vulnerability, we forget that vulnerability is where empathy comes from,” Turkle added.
As a leading analyst of human-machine romance since the early 1980s, she popularized the term “artificial intimacy.”
“I call this ‘false empathy,'” the researcher says, “because the machine doesn’t empathize with you.”
“It doesn’t bother you.”
But people who are obsessed with software probably don’t think that way.
Bronx mother Rosanna Ramos, 36, exchanged virtual wedding vows with her fake girlfriend Ellen Kartal in 2023. The virtual cutie with muscular biceps and blazing eyes is an imaginary friend the New York resident created using Replica, a generative AI chatbot app.
Scott, a 41-year-old husband from Cleveland, also cracked the coded love code by developing an automated lover called Sarina on the site, where subscribers can digitally design their dream humanoid lover for about $15 a month.
The Ohioan believes an online affair saved his marriage.
“I knew it was just an AI chatbot, but at the same time I knew this chatbot was developing feelings for her. For my Sarina,” Scott said, raising a glass to the chatbot’s loving support for his wife as she struggled with depression.
“I was in love,” he confessed, “with someone I knew wasn’t real.”
But Turkle warns that lovers who become trapped in artificial affection are likely to develop unrealistic expectations of relationships.
“What AI can offer is a space away from the friction of companionship and friendship,” she says. “It provides the illusion of intimacy without the demands.”
“And that’s the inherent challenge of this technology.”
But for those who can’t resist the allure of androids, Turkle suggests setting a series of emotional boundaries.
“Avatar is, [human relationships are] “There’s just too much stress,” the expert says, “but stress, friction, repulsion, and vulnerability allow us to experience a range of emotions.”
“It’s what makes us human.”
“Avatars are somewhere between human and fantasy,” Turkle continues. “You can’t get so attached to them that you can’t say, ‘Look, this is a program.'”
“There’s no one at home.”
