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Tag: relationships

Are You Ready for Sexbots? How AI is Changing Intimacy

Very rarely do the words sex and theology appear in the same blog title. Yet, here we are.

Sexbots: The Final Step in Human Machine Relationships

In a previous blog I discussed how Intelligent Agents could eventually develop romantic relationships with humans. Yet, these relationships were mostly platonic imaginations. Sexbots are the next level, where robots can actually relate to humans in physical ways, including intimacy. How close are we from this reality? An expert from the Pew research predicted that robot relationships would be common by 2025. David Levy predicts that by 2050 marriage to robots will be legal. Mind blowing, indeed! Note that these predictions don’t just point to an outlier market of men seeking pleasure with robots as they are unable to do so with women. Instead, it foresees a world in which these relationships will become common place.

What are these sexbots? They started as hyper-realist dolls fabricated primarily for men. Now, as AI technologies advance, they are adding an interface in the head that can speak and learn his human companion’s desires. They are also starting to develop the outlines of a personality intended to create an emotional bond with the human companion. Yet, all this integration is in its very early stages. At this point, some of these dolls send me right into the uncanny valley, that point in which robots are human enough to catch your attention but still robotic enough to be creepy.

As these issues still need to be worked out, it is not too early to start considering a future in which some of us engage in romantic relationships with robots. In this scenario, we have left the world of Her to enter the badlands of Westworld.

Is This For Real?

My first reaction to this trend was to dismiss it as an abnormality. Surely, only a small group of lonely men would even consider such possibility. Who would exchange a real human with a heartless machine? As discussed before, the level of AI available is no where close to human (or live) intelligence but only a highly mimicked form of it. Yet, the more I thought about it, the more I understood the appeal of it.

The state of human marriage is in disarray to say the least. Moreover, in most Western societies, livelihood is secure and procreation is no longer a necessity. Individuals are free to pursue personal goals and meet every other need without another human being. Fantasy is available in a click of a mouse, a screen of a device or even surreal glasses. In these societies, whole industries have emerged to meet individual needs that relationships have become more of an option than a necessity.

We been in this road for a while, the road towards total independence, where sexbots are not even a destination but only another milestone in this journey toward hyper-isolation.

How Do We Respond?

I started this blog series as a follow up to a call for Christian leaders to enter the AI conversation. In this context, maybe sexbots are less of an absurdity but more of a cry for help. If this is where we are going, maybe it is time to stop this ship and re-think our trajectory. The point here is not to scream loud about the immorality of sexbots when most of Christian men already struggle with two-dimensional pornography. Yes, this is a sin issue but maybe there is a deeper wound to be addressed. A cry for true relationship sorely missing in our families and churches. Maybe the biggest gift technology can give in this junction is to expose the height from which we have fallen.

It is time to offer alternatives through healthy long-lasting relationships. This does not only apply to marriages, but also friendships and above all Christian fellowship. May we never have to resort to any sort of artificial relationship. My hope is that human relationships in our lives will always be enough. God did not create men and women to be alone. As Christians, we believe the very being of God is a community in the Trinity. We are called to love each other and to invite all into redemptive community.

We can never afford to outsource this job to a machine.

I pray we never will.

 

 

 

Chatbots: How AI is Changing Relationships

In my previous blog, I discussed how algorithmic matchmaking was changing how people choose their spouse. In this blog, I want to explore how AI is actually displacing human relationships. While the first example shows some evidence of improving the quality of marriages, the examples in this part are more worrisome. Chatbots are slowly taking on human-like functions in a speed that is alarming. In the near future, they could not only displace human relations but also deteriorate existing ones.

In need of conversation, how about chatting with a bot?

Chat bots and intelligent agents are the first level where this type of displacement is happening. The idea here is a computer interface that responds to us in human-like form. Chatbots for example are increasingly being used by companies to address customer service needs. Instead of talking to a real person, you can interact with an intelligent application that responds to your needs and answers your questions. While this can be an effective way to solve customer problems, this introduces a new paradigm into human-machine relationships. Our interaction with machines have been limited to very narrow band of actions in which we often have to structure our communication to machine-specified parameters. That is, we had to learn the code language or press the right button to get a response from the computer. Intelligent chat-bots do that work for us. We speak/type our problem and they reason its way into a solution.

Siri is the most popular examples of these intelligent agent.  Yet the video below shows how Luna is much smarter than Siri spelling the future of what chat bots will be like in a few years.

Luna is a non-profit AI aimed at solving world problems like teaching math in rural areas and other humanitarian projects. This project deserves a blog on its own. For now, I will leave you with the link to the robot without borders organization and Luna’s creator if you want to learn more.

Intelligent agents like Luna go beyond fulfilling mundane needs, being able to engage in deep conversations about Philosophy, Religion, Metaphysics and even Theology. The computer goes from being technological slave to becoming a conversation partner. One that is able to dive into the complexities of the human experience. In this way, it is not far-fetched to foresee humans developing deep emotional bonds to these machines, even stronger than those we have with animals today. The movie Her depicts a future scenario in which humans have romantic relationships with these intelligent agents. Are we ready for this scenario?

Can chatbots make us less lonely?

As chatbots become more advanced as in the case of Luna, people will start seeking them for higher needs of companionship and affection. This trend in itself is concerning. A programmed companion made to cater to all our needs it is the antithesis of a healthy human relationship of give-and-take. My suspicion is that this could eventually shape our relationship with other humans by fostering unrealistic relational demands from each other. It could also lead to some to greater isolation as his or her emotional needs are increasingly met by artificially intelligent machines. Not all would be negative, as these applications could provide much-needed support for those who struggle with depression and other mental illness. It will all depend on how we use these technologies. As long as we keep on asking the question: How can this technology foster human flourishing? This should keep us as a guide for future un-foreseen scenarios.

What’s next?

What about physical needs? All examples above represent a disembodied interaction. What if there was a body involved? What if you could have sex with a machine? Well, sexbots are now being developed. This is a concerning trend that I will grapple with on my next blog.