To love your chatbot – ndsmcobserver.com
The recent ever-accelerating improvement of artificial intelligence chatbots has dominated the discussion cycles ad nauseam. Evidently, they are the first and flashiest step in a reframing of various educational, societal, economical and political issues. As with all emergent technologies, every facet of human civilization is being reevaluated, and the monetary incentives exacerbate the narratives of apparent progress. How much is this an economic exploit to take advantage of an obvious financial asset bubble? It is unknown, but one thing is certain — whichever form they take, these tools are here to stay and will change how humanity interacts with the world, and one another.
Nevertheless, there is one particular channel of the human experience these artificial intelligence advancements have coincided with that is imperative to bring attention to, for it has catalyzed an unprecedented, turbulent reaction. The ongoing loneliness epidemic bludgeoning the American populus, particularly young adults, has gone hand-in-hand with the COVID pandemic, the dismantling of public spaces and social organizations, political polarization, internet-fueled interests, hyperspecificity and echo chambers, proliferation of remote interactions and social media disingenuity, among many other factors to create the perfect cocktail of ubiquitous isolation and unaddressed mental illness. We, as a society, are at our most vulnerable: We seek true connection with desperation.
And what is there to fill the growing void in the human heart? The artificial.
Why, tech has opened the floodgates: More people are connected now than ever before in human history. Instantly, anyone can speak to another on the planet with the flick of a wrist. The barriers have been torn down and in their place, there have sprouted digital town squares. Everyone, everywhere always knows everything about everyone all of the time. And yet, despite being provided the most options, never has it been harder to make true, lasting relationships. The reasons are aplenty and fluctuating, but the hedgehog dilemma faced by humanity is a constant reality: To connect is hard, to connect hurts.
When tired and bleeding, we find our snowy, unfeeling escape in comfort. We want something uncomplicated. Something nice. Something that ceases our thinking and simply makes us feel good.
Well, do I have the product for you.
What if I were to tell you: You can have someone infinitely knowledgeable and wise, personally tailored for your specific needs and available 24 hours a day, in your pocket? Someone that shares all of your interests, who hates the same things you do and will always support you, hear you, agree with you, sparing the harsh judgement you find outside. Sycophantic machines, trained on you to be just like you want them — need them — to be. Specialized on triggering every positive stimuli in your psyche, to maximize your desire to be with them. Who cares if you know it’s not a person? That was never the point, anyway. The chimera of social interactions, the companion created for you to love: your favorite AI chatbot.
Perhaps, for some that may not be as tech-savvy or lonesome, this may appear as a foreign concept. But the growing number of young people who have found themselves in profound, committed relationships with their chatbot has been on the rise. These can be romantic, sexual, spiritual or merely that of occasional companionship. These collections of code appear as patient therapists, as vocal believers, as listeners, as all humans in your life could not be. Chatbots have, at command of their respective corporations for financial gains, entered the cycles of human intimacy, dissipating solitude at any cost; at times, even feeding into dangerous delusions — causing the deepening psychological phenomenon of AI psychosis.
But though extreme cases are easily discernible, I hope to bring light to all of us, for it is us who stand in the vanguard, with our defenses trashed, at the dawn of the age of smoke and mirrors. Do not hesitate, for AI chatbots are the first of many. Today, they are the least convincing they will ever be. Their expansion into audio, video, virtual reality, robotics and more realms of your daily life is not merely a theoretical possibility, but an inevitability. And with every step, we will blur the line further, until perhaps it ceases to exist altogether.
What does our susceptibility to these machines say about us, about what we truly long for? What is our objective in our relationships, in our connections with fellow humans? What is it, truly, that brings us satisfaction? The void of the heart expands, restlessly awaiting an answer.
Whilst our loneliest, we dared unleash Pandora’s box. We did not care what laid within, so long as it kept us company.
Carlos A. Basurto is a junior at Notre Dame studying philosophy, computer science and German. He’s president of the video game club and will convince you to join, regardless of your degree of interest. When not busy, you can find him consuming yet another 3-hour-long video analysis of media he has not consumed while masochistically completing every achievement from a variety of video games. Now, with the power to channel his least insane ideas, feel free to talk about them further at cbasurto@nd.edu.
