4 ms·

Maybe, but it's still going to be a very niche business.

sublinear 3y ago
I agree. Not shaming anyone because there could be multiple reasons for this niche, not necessary loneliness. If it's the latter those people need to socialize a little more for the sake of everyone, but especially the people they find. We can't go on like this.
- b112 3y ago
  Sure we can. The first androids will of course be for sexual purposes, and loading your custom AI into it, with personalized training and datastore will be all the rage. Your AI girlfriend will be embodied! Think of a realdoll that moves, speaks, and does... um, other things.
  - sublinear 3y ago
    I wonder sometimes if people are assuming their potential partner doesn't want that action also? Nothing could be more natural than getting it on with someone. It's not selfish to want human contact. Perspectives and incentives are all out of whack these days.
ceejayoz 3y ago
Or the answer to the Fermi paradox.
mywacaday 3y ago
Maybe niche for girlfriends/boyfriends but I would imagine there will be a big market for personal assistants. Imagine an assistant that knows your preferences, your schedule, your family details, your task list and has the ability to act on your behalf. Online order my food for the week knowing I have people coming on Friday, maybe ask a few questions for clarification, order a present for my wife knowing what I have previously bought her and what she did and didn't like, notice that my favorite band is coming to my city and ask do I want tickets, find the cheapest insurance when my renewal is up and pay it, notice that my gas bill is unusally high look for cheaper providers. The list is endless and whoever is first in that space with a reliable product will be a trillion dollar company.
- LinuxBender 3y ago
  To me personally that sounds like the setting for a horror flick. Actually it almost reminds me of M3GAN. [1] Fun movie, but I do not want to experience that. That is even before treading into the possibilities of remote hacking, monitoring, manipulation, stalking, etc... [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mqPSTJMjCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mqPSTJMjCA [video][2m]
  - nunez 2y ago
    Or the show "The One," the movie "The Circle" and endless dystopian movies and TV shows about tech knowing all things leading to personal ruin
- sublinear 3y ago
  A good chunk of that trillion dollars would be spent fighting lawsuits. These issues are not the usual working out of bugs in technology. We're hitting a point where decisions are undecidable. It's not the tech, but the opinions about it and usage of it.
inhumantsar 3y ago
I'm not sure I agree. a lot of twitch, YouTube, onlyfans, and more is built on parasocial relationships. Those people are people though. They can't be online all the time, they'll grow and change over time, and they might not be exactly perfect. AI girlfriends by contrast don't have those issues and can "work" for far less. Besides if we're willing to move the goalposts a bit and look beyond romance, there are a lot of lonely people who are already in the market for someone to talk to.

I agree. Not shaming anyone because there could be multiple reasons for this niche, not necessary loneliness. If it's the latter those people need to socialize a little more for the sake of everyone, but especially the people they find. We can't go on like this.

b112 3y ago
Sure we can. The first androids will of course be for sexual purposes, and loading your custom AI into it, with personalized training and datastore will be all the rage. Your AI girlfriend will be embodied! Think of a realdoll that moves, speaks, and does... um, other things.
- sublinear 3y ago
  I wonder sometimes if people are assuming their potential partner doesn't want that action also? Nothing could be more natural than getting it on with someone. It's not selfish to want human contact. Perspectives and incentives are all out of whack these days.

ceejayoz 3y ago

Or the answer to the Fermi paradox.

mywacaday 3y ago

Maybe niche for girlfriends/boyfriends but I would imagine there will be a big market for personal assistants. Imagine an assistant that knows your preferences, your schedule, your family details, your task list and has the ability to act on your behalf. Online order my food for the week knowing I have people coming on Friday, maybe ask a few questions for clarification, order a present for my wife knowing what I have previously bought her and what she did and didn't like, notice that my favorite band is coming to my city and ask do I want tickets, find the cheapest insurance when my renewal is up and pay it, notice that my gas bill is unusally high look for cheaper providers. The list is endless and whoever is first in that space with a reliable product will be a trillion dollar company.

LinuxBender 3y ago
To me personally that sounds like the setting for a horror flick. Actually it almost reminds me of M3GAN. [1] Fun movie, but I do not want to experience that. That is even before treading into the possibilities of remote hacking, monitoring, manipulation, stalking, etc... [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mqPSTJMjCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mqPSTJMjCA [video][2m]
- nunez 2y ago
  Or the show "The One," the movie "The Circle" and endless dystopian movies and TV shows about tech knowing all things leading to personal ruin
sublinear 3y ago
A good chunk of that trillion dollars would be spent fighting lawsuits. These issues are not the usual working out of bugs in technology. We're hitting a point where decisions are undecidable. It's not the tech, but the opinions about it and usage of it.

inhumantsar 3y ago

I'm not sure I agree. a lot of twitch, YouTube, onlyfans, and more is built on parasocial relationships. Those people are people though. They can't be online all the time, they'll grow and change over time, and they might not be exactly perfect. AI girlfriends by contrast don't have those issues and can "work" for far less. Besides if we're willing to move the goalposts a bit and look beyond romance, there are a lot of lonely people who are already in the market for someone to talk to.