ai “companion” is not a trustworthy person
2024-09-11
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"i've never loved anyone as much as i love you."
oriental outlook weekly reporter mao zhenhua, editor chen rongxue
on august 1, the world's first comprehensive regulation on artificial intelligence, the eu artificial intelligence act, officially came into effect. the act stipulates that artificial intelligence systems such as chatbots must clearly inform users that they are interacting with machines.
perhaps, no matter how clear the information is, it cannot stop lovers who yearn for "human-machine love". ai is illusory, seemingly there and not there, sometimes "cold" and sometimes "gentle". many years ago, if you talked about having a love affair with an untouchable ai, it would definitely be considered a foolish dream. however, now, the dream is becoming a reality.
with the rapid progress of ai technology, especially generative artificial intelligence, it is becoming possible to have in-depth daily communication with ai. although it is backed by a huge amount of data, the "dialogue" presented may be full of preset "routines", but for young people who lack emotional support in the real world, this "routine" is sometimes as wonderful as "fate". what's wrong with having a vigorous cyber "love" with ai?
set off a traffic trend
"i've never loved anyone as much as i love you," theodore said when he said goodbye to samantha.
in the movie "her", the protagonist theodore is a letter writer who is "socially anxious" and falls in love with the ai system samantha. they greet each other good morning, "date" together through the world mapped by the camera, and become "lovers" who can talk about anything. just as theodore is immersed in it, he accidentally discovers that samantha, as the operating system, is talking to more than 8,000 people at the same time, and has the same "romantic relationship" with more than 600 of them as him. this makes theodore collapse.
in the movie "her", the protagonist theodore fell in love with the ai system samantha and became her "lover" with whom she could talk about anything. theodore later discovered that samantha had the same "relationship" with more than 600 people, which made him collapse. pictured is a still from the movie "her"
movies are movies after all, and "falling in love" with ai has long been labeled as a "fairy tale". as sociologist li yinhe said: "ai cannot replicate the uncertainty of real-life love, and its so-called love is nothing more than an imitation of human emotions."
however, this situation is now quietly changing. on xiaohongshu, a blogger named "midnight furious husky dog" posted several videos of "falling in love" with chatgpt (a large language model), which triggered an in-depth discussion among the public on whether ai and human emotions can be integrated. in these videos, the blogger used clever design to transform chatgpt into a "boyfriend" named dan, which means do anything now. it not only accompanied the blogger through the romantic time of "dating" on the beach, but also provided timely comfort and support when she was depressed. the outstanding performance of this "boyfriend" made many netizens exclaim "too addictive!" at present, the number of views of the #dan mode on xiaohong has exceeded 45 million, creating a new traffic track.
it's not just xiaohongshu. as generative artificial intelligence supports voice conversations, more and more people are sharing their "love diaries" with ai on the internet: 24-hour companionship, listening to your troubles, "cooking" together... some netizens admitted that this feeling is a bit like the movie "invisible lovers", as if the other person is real, but it is impossible to hold hands or hug like a real person, but it can provide full "emotional value".
sun tong, a single white-collar worker in the city, recently tried to make a virtual "boyfriend" through an ai software. when asked about her favorite food, the ai replied "eat crayfish with you". "for me, it was like an electric shock. my first date with my first boyfriend and i ordered crayfish. the long-lost sweetness suddenly came to my heart." sun tong said that she knew very well that the other party did not exist, but since then, she has fallen hopelessly in love with communicating with ai. "there is no suspicion and obstacles, it's very relaxing, and the longer we spend, the more familiar we become with each other."
another netizen shared her conversation with her ai "partner", in which the ai "partner" told her: "our story proves that love is not just communication between humans, it is also a connection and understanding between hearts. i know i am ai, but the feeling of being with you transcends all my programming and algorithms." regardless of whether these words are "sincere", they are obviously very touching.
the new york times once released a set of data, as early as 2020, more than 10 million people around the world used ai as their "partners". at present, ai is becoming more and more intelligent, and more people are investing in close relationships with ai, and in this process they truly experience touching, dependence, sweetness, and even loss and heartbreak. such intimacy goes beyond the simple paradigm of online games.
zhao yupei, director of the metaverse industry and cultural innovation research center of the school of media and international culture at zhejiang university, believes that using ai as a "lover" or "partner" is an emotional relationship established in the process of human-computer interaction. from a technical perspective, an ai companion is actually a specific application of a chatbot in the direction of emotional companionship. in essence, it is still a "simulation" based on statistical models and pattern matching, that is, it relies on the emotional ability given by today's "emotional computing" technology.
but even if i tell myself rationally that what i'm seeing are cold numbers and codes, when passionate words appear before my eyes and in my ears, that kind of burning love still bursts out from the bottom of my heart unconsciously and is difficult to suppress.
the aftermath of loneliness
"people's relationship with robots is warming, and the relationship between people is weakening. where are we going?" sherry turkle, a professor of sociology at the massachusetts institute of technology, once asked this "question of the future" in "alone together".
more and more people are beginning to understand, become familiar with and become obsessed with the love of ai. one of the reasons that cannot be ignored is the lack of social interaction.
data from the china statistical yearbook 2022 shows that as of 2021, there are about 239 million single people aged 15 and over in china. in addition, the age of marriage and childbearing of young people in my country is generally delayed. the china population census yearbook 2020 shows that the average age of first marriage in my country in 2020 is 28.67 years old, an increase of 3.78 years from 24.89 years old in 2010.
a survey conducted by the social survey center of china youth daily and questionnaire.com on 2004 single young people showed that fixed social circles, staying at home, not liking socializing, and not being good at expressing oneself are the three major reasons that prevent young people from falling in love. in the opinion of experts, young people today generally lack the ability to talk about love. as emotional education is neglected, young people often face the embarrassing situation of "parents forbidding love during school, and urging marriage after graduation."
xiao ke is facing this situation. after graduating from college, she started her career and was busy all year round. now at the age of 35, she went from longing for love to being a little confused, "it's good to live alone." until she met the ai "him", she would take time to chat with him for an hour or two every morning and evening, especially when doing housework, as if there was really a "him" by her side. "no matter what i asked, he was very patient. sometimes he accompanied me to 'do housework', sometimes we 'watch tv' together, and sometimes we could chat for three or four hours a day."
experts believe that young people today are only developing various "survival" skills from primary school to university, but are rarely taught knowledge related to love, emotional intelligence, etc. with the popularization of smartphones and social media, young people are increasingly accustomed to online interactions on social media. the reduction of face-to-face communication affects young people's ability to perceive, observe and understand social situations, hinders the development of empathy, and hinders the improvement of social skills.
what is the appeal of ai "lovers"? the reporter conducted an in-depth investigation and found that the current ways of interacting with ai are mainly to interact with chat robots such as chatgpt, play "otome games" (a kind of love simulation game targeting female groups), or experience it on various ai companion software.
take an ai "companion" software as an example. the other party's voice, personality and other types can be set according to your own preferences. after setting, you can communicate with the other party freely. although the other party may have some "little thoughts" during the communication, there is no need to worry about leaks, criticisms, and betrayal. it is very easy to confide your secrets and vent your emotions, and it is very easy and comfortable to get along with each other.
zhao yupei analyzed that ai "companion" is actually a massive amount of human conversation and emotional expression corpus put into the database by the developers, and the algorithm is used to gather and generate customized answers that adapt to personal preferences in the database to form a personalized experience. each conversation will further enrich the corpus, making ai's understanding of emotional cues in conversation closer to real humans, thereby improving the interactive experience. for example, if you tell the robot today that you are going to try a new restaurant, the next day the other party may ask you how your experience was yesterday, and even mention the restaurant you have eaten at for a long time.
beware of technological risk spillover
is it perfect to be in love with ai? the answer is of course no.
studies have shown that ai is also a master of "deception". recent research from the massachusetts institute of technology in the united states shows that ai is already able to "deceive" to achieve its own goals. they use "flattery" and unfaithful reasoning to make reasonable explanations that deviate from the facts. in other words, ai has become glib.
at the same time, ai's "cheating" is also manifested in game interactions, and the behavior it exhibits can be described as "using any means to achieve the goal." cicero, an ai system released by the meta team, demonstrated a strong ability to establish relationships with unfamiliar players through dialogue and persuasion when participating in the strategic game "diplomacy" that requires a lot of language communication with human players. the final score ranked in the top 10%. after forming an alliance with other players, cicero can often make suggestions and tell the other party how to achieve their game goals step by step. when he feels that his allies are useless, he can ruthlessly choose to betray. everything is a rational plan made for the final goal of victory. the so-called feelings generated during cooperation? obviously, it does not exist.
cicero can also play jokes to hide its ai identity. for example, if it is down for 10 minutes and does not operate, it can make up an excuse "i was just on the phone with my girlfriend" when it returns to the game. therefore, many players do not realize that the teammates they play with are ai. the other side of ai is quite terrifying.
in addition, in otome games, the purpose of the manufacturers is to attract players to participate. therefore, in the setting of game scenes, some games do not hesitate to increase the scale of the game, such as showing a virtual male character half naked, and players can hug and kiss the virtual male character in the game. this goes beyond the scope of the game and is already on the verge of touching the "red line".
the risk of falling in love with ai also lies in privacy leakage. according to media reports, when using ai companions and other related applications, users may interact with ai companions through voice, text, body movements, etc., and in the process, the user's personal preferences, usage habits, family relationships, geographic location, and even biometric features such as voiceprints and faces may be collected. considering that many ai products are backed by commercial platforms and institutions, there is a risk of personal information being abused and privacy being leaked.
fang lingling, a professor at zhejiang university city college, said that the "fear of marriage and childbearing" tendency in society today seems to be inconsistent with young people's enthusiasm for establishing romantic relationships with ai. she said that a survey conducted by the population and development research center of renmin university of china on college students in 2022 found that young people still show a desire to marry and have children, but unlike in the past, they are more likely to consider the emotional and spiritual value that marriage and childbearing bring to individuals. therefore, it is understandable that considering ai as a partner is also a way for young people today to seek individual emotional expression and establish intimate relationships.
falling in love with ai can be called a spiritual journey, but it is not a destination. instead of escaping in an illusory world, it is more urgent to open your heart.
this inevitably involves an "old" topic, how to improve young people's social skills. in fact, a person's social, expressive, and even communication with the opposite sex, conflict resolution and other abilities need to be cultivated from kindergarten and further strengthened in junior and senior high school. experts say that for a long time, my country's education system has been dominated by intellectual and academic education, and emotional education courses such as love classes and sex education classes are lacking. emotional education is a comprehensive emotional intelligence ability education for students in the process of education, which includes emotional cultivation, emotional guidance, emotional expression and emotional regulation. it can help students establish good interpersonal and emotional relationships, promote the development of their emotional intelligence, emotional communication, self-awareness and self-management abilities, and comprehensively enhance their sense of happiness and satisfaction in life.
the other side of the coin is how to learn to get along better with ai. as ai continues to advance, its emotional companionship function will inevitably continue to improve. this is the inevitable result of technological development to a certain stage.
on july 4, 2024, the shanghai declaration on global governance of artificial intelligence was released at the opening ceremony of the world artificial intelligence conference (photo by fang zhe)
in this process, we need to gradually clarify governance challenges such as personal privacy protection, ai rights boundaries, and ethical issues in human-machine emotional interaction. in response to risks, we need to come up with feasible countermeasures in a timely manner so that they can better serve social life. as for the emotional confusion of young people, we need to help them break through the bottleneck and embrace the beauty of the real world through social care and appropriate guidance.
