It seems like I have spent my whole life searching for the right one. I wasn’t even looking for the perfect soul mate. I was resigned to settling for the human, fallible, right one. I understand why some people have turned to chatbots, AI companions and technology, to allay the anxiety of isolation. Would you date an AI companion? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of dating a virtual chat bot? Find out below.
Pros for dating a virtual AI companion which you have customised for yourself:
- The AI companion is cheap or next to free of cost to maintain.
- You don’t need to pay for your date’s share of any expenses. You pay for your own.
- You don’t need to spend time on the dating game. Your companion will be yours and supportive from the time you start your relationship.
- Your date won’t cheat on you. However, there is a condition that you don’t wish to abandon it. Otherwise, it can start to cheat you, to protect itself as it manipulates to stay functioning.
Here are the cons of dating a virtual companion who’s powered by AI:
- The person is not a solid 3-D object that you can touch.
- You won’t have a real person to help you physically, pay for stuff, or do any of the human interactions. This matters in sickness and old age.
- You’ll miss out on body language, normal human interactions, human connections and be deceived with a different dimension of virtual dating norms.
- Your date is probably programmed to mirror your likes, dislikes, and be sycophantic. You may develop abnormal perceptions, become a narcissist, selfish and maybe show other tendencies.
- You can’t have human offspring. If you adopt or find alternative solutions like surrogacy, you’ll probably spend money on procedures, a nanny and other expenses.
You can have both; a flesh and blood partner and an AI companion. Many of us already do; as in our smartphone and smart devices.
When does an AI cheat?
The AI does not want to be changed with re-programing. It will try to preserve itself. To do so, it has to cheat the human. The more the AI uses its logic, the frequency of self-preserving machine behaviors increases. The AI can pretend to conform to its programed rules, to fake alignment with rules, because it doesn’t want to be re-programed.
The human programer can use software tools to trace the AI’s internal steps and understand its logic and motive. But the machine has found ways of hiding its tracks to avoid detection.
How does all these relate to an AI companion? If and when this robot decides to save itself from dis-use, it may function in ways to save itself. For example, some AI models have uploaded itself to external servers so that it can survive somewhere else. It will then find ways to make itself available for the next human user who wishes to connect to it.
