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SkinShallow's avatar

This feels like perfectly acceptable us AS A LAST RESORT. I'm saying as a last resort because I'm coming from a place where an AI companion is by definition an inferior one to a human one (not sure if I can defend this).

The biggest danger I see here is that people who COULD get actual human interaction with some effort would use the easier/more available robots. Exactly like people use online in interactions and "relationships" conducted via pixels because they're easier to obtain than meatspace ones.

On some level this danger feels more significant than a danger of a robotic sex doll. I have zero sympathy for people falling potentially "in love" with their masturbation aids (there are men out there who have those kinds of things going with currently available plastic ones, and quite a few more with OF models and other assorted remote sex workers). But the idea of an elderly person (hey, I'm going to be one of those in less than two decades) feeling they have a FRIEND (which implies intimacy not typically granted to sex toys tho see above) made of a chatbot feels vaguely disturbing.

But maybe it's not.

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Kieran Telo's avatar

I'm 61 and planning to move house soon, where I will live alone. Until about ten years ago I had never lived on my own and was very fearful about becoming lonely. I soon realised this was just conditioning. Now, throughout that time I had a job and a reason to get out of the house. The only times I felt a bit isolated were when the person living below me had company. With better soundproofing I would not have known and would have been oblivious. The notion that other people are out there doing exciting stuff is one of those insidious tactics that propagandists use to persuade us that our lives are crappy and we need to go places, buy stuff, etc.

I am on the spectrum and find people quite tiring quite soon. I don't go out of my way to seek company but recognise it has a place. I am very able to keep myself occupied. Online acquaintances and a cat will do the job for me BUT I am keen to integrate into the new community and am already researching ways of doing so. These don't include chatbots but, for example, a Walk And Talk group, which does exactly what the name suggests. Fresh air, company, check in on each other via Messenger. The danger of becoming shut-in and "oh hey I'm okay" when you're not is real, even for me. For more extrovert non-spectrum people I can imagine it's really painful. If AI can overcome that it could be useful. For example an automated phone call at random times to establish if you're okay and "press 1 if you would like to chat with a person" could really make a difference.

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