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I don't know, maybe at worst it'll be good practice. Awkward guys can interact with someone friendly in a no-consequence way, and maybe gain some comfort. In a

I don't know, maybe at worst it'll be good practice. Awkward guys can interact with someone friendly in a no-consequence way, and maybe gain some comfort. In any case, with the exception of a few weirdos, I don't think most people are going to be confused about whether AI girlfriends are real, just as almost no one thinks a sex doll is real.

palata 3y ago
> maybe at worst it'll be good practice That's the worst you can imagine? :-)
- gota 3y ago
  I can imagine far worse. Besides all mental health issues and societal reproductive crises, we can easily get a black mirror-like situation where each one of the million copies of AI Girlfriend X convinces their 'boyfriends' to consume Y or, worse, vote for Z
  - palata 3y ago
    Yes, I can imagine worse as well :-)
  - bawolff 3y ago
    I mean, that doesn't sound that different from our modern targeted advertising world.
    - palata 3y ago
      Getting there, one step at a time...
gota 3y ago
Hm, I don't know. Sex dolls don't pass the Turing test with flying colors. More than that, even without speech or action they are emotional surrogates for some needy people - making the simulacra perfect will make it easier for more and more lonely people (let's be honest, mostly men) to take that leap of 'suspension of disbelief'. Even among those that don't engage it may become more socially acceptable. I imagine some people who have to hide their realistic sex dolls today will gladly disclose their AI girlfriend to close friends (and they won't care) I'm not sure what will come of it, but I recognize it as a potentially very impactful thing in the following decades edit: I just now realize I'm thinking about the girlfriend from Bladerunner 2049. I guess life does imitate art and science fiction still predicts technology well
- bawolff 3y ago
  > Hm, I don't know. Sex dolls don't pass the Turing test with flying colors. Neither do AI chatbots
  - gota 3y ago
    yet
    - bawolff 3y ago
      Based on current trends, there's not a lot of reason to think they will anytime soon. Advances are being made but we are still really far away.
- klabb3 3y ago
  > Hm, I don't know. Sex dolls don't pass the Turing test with flying colors. Having generic conversations is not enough intimacy for most people. Neither is sex dolls. I worry about people’s shallowness that current state AI and sex dolls is sufficiently authentic. I think it says more about them than about AI. ChatGPT is an extremely generic and thus dull conversation partner, if you ignore the vast knowledge “it” has. That said, of course it’s possible that AI improves rapidly.
- Brian_K_White 3y ago
  "don't participate but accept others do" is pretty much what I already do for religion. I would class this right in the same category, as another facet of being willing to accept an imaginary basis for validation and purpose if it's more satisfying than reality. I think it's a failing, but one based on a weakness like any other infirmity, and an unavoidably overwhelmingly common one. I accept that a person with a broken leg can not be relied on to carry bricks up a ladder. They may or may not be perfectly nice people who don't deserve to be miserable and starved of something they need as long as what they need can be supplied without hurting anyone. So anyone who does not insist on driving their own bus simply can't be relied on to help drive mine or anyone else's. So if they are otherwise nice people I don't try to harass them with arguments about religion, I just don't respect them beyond being nice, or value their input about anything. It's insulting and hurtful if expressed, but I see no other valid option but to make the value judgment as honestly as possible internally and just don't express it when there is no need to. I don't think it's valid to grant more than pretend legitimacy, but defensibly arguably valid TO grant that pretend legitimacy where it doesn't have any real consequences.

palata 3y ago

> maybe at worst it'll be good practice That's the worst you can imagine? :-)

gota 3y ago
I can imagine far worse. Besides all mental health issues and societal reproductive crises, we can easily get a black mirror-like situation where each one of the million copies of AI Girlfriend X convinces their 'boyfriends' to consume Y or, worse, vote for Z
- palata 3y ago
  Yes, I can imagine worse as well :-)
- bawolff 3y ago
  I mean, that doesn't sound that different from our modern targeted advertising world.
  - palata 3y ago
    Getting there, one step at a time...

gota 3y ago

Hm, I don't know. Sex dolls don't pass the Turing test with flying colors. More than that, even without speech or action they are emotional surrogates for some needy people - making the simulacra perfect will make it easier for more and more lonely people (let's be honest, mostly men) to take that leap of 'suspension of disbelief'. Even among those that don't engage it may become more socially acceptable. I imagine some people who have to hide their realistic sex dolls today will gladly disclose their AI girlfriend to close friends (and they won't care) I'm not sure what will come of it, but I recognize it as a potentially very impactful thing in the following decades edit: I just now realize I'm thinking about the girlfriend from Bladerunner 2049. I guess life does imitate art and science fiction still predicts technology well

bawolff 3y ago
> Hm, I don't know. Sex dolls don't pass the Turing test with flying colors. Neither do AI chatbots
- gota 3y ago
  yet
  - bawolff 3y ago
    Based on current trends, there's not a lot of reason to think they will anytime soon. Advances are being made but we are still really far away.
klabb3 3y ago
> Hm, I don't know. Sex dolls don't pass the Turing test with flying colors. Having generic conversations is not enough intimacy for most people. Neither is sex dolls. I worry about people’s shallowness that current state AI and sex dolls is sufficiently authentic. I think it says more about them than about AI. ChatGPT is an extremely generic and thus dull conversation partner, if you ignore the vast knowledge “it” has. That said, of course it’s possible that AI improves rapidly.
Brian_K_White 3y ago
"don't participate but accept others do" is pretty much what I already do for religion. I would class this right in the same category, as another facet of being willing to accept an imaginary basis for validation and purpose if it's more satisfying than reality. I think it's a failing, but one based on a weakness like any other infirmity, and an unavoidably overwhelmingly common one. I accept that a person with a broken leg can not be relied on to carry bricks up a ladder. They may or may not be perfectly nice people who don't deserve to be miserable and starved of something they need as long as what they need can be supplied without hurting anyone. So anyone who does not insist on driving their own bus simply can't be relied on to help drive mine or anyone else's. So if they are otherwise nice people I don't try to harass them with arguments about religion, I just don't respect them beyond being nice, or value their input about anything. It's insulting and hurtful if expressed, but I see no other valid option but to make the value judgment as honestly as possible internally and just don't express it when there is no need to. I don't think it's valid to grant more than pretend legitimacy, but defensibly arguably valid TO grant that pretend legitimacy where it doesn't have any real consequences.