When I said a little while back that we should stop referring to #LLMs as "#AI", and instead call them "imaginary friends", I wasn't trying to make a joke.
One of the most lucrative markets for this technology is going to be virtual girlfriends. #Neoliberalism and #Neofeudalism are the dominant socio-cultural-economic systems, and they are designed to alienate people from one another in a divide and conquer strategy.
We live in a system designed to isolate and disempower us, leaving us desperately lonely and starving for even the illusion of connection, companionship, family, affection, and love.
It is the nature of human consciousness to intuit patterns, even where none exist. When we experience interaction with anything that meets even the barest framework of human-seeming, our minds animate it automatically and ascribe agency to it.
"#AI" doesn't need to be even good for people to fall in love with it.
Given even the sketchiest set of clues, we naturally fill in the missing pieces, we see a ghost in the machine, we imbue it with meaning, with a soul, and economic exploitation will follow immediately behind.
I can't say I would be immune to the comforts of a virtual girlfriend. I've been single for 15 years, living entirely alone for over 5 years, no pets, no roommates. Even talking at and listening to Siri is exciting.
Now imagine Siri using all the data about your demonstrated preferences.
Imagine an individualized Siri, connected to every electronic device in your home, your vehicles, and your mobile devices—even the ones tracking your heart rate and sleep rhythms, menstrual cycles—ready to serve you wherever you go as personal assistant, secretary, confidante, and even lover. Its not hard to wirelessly connect machine learning to a vibrator.
We're not even very far from this.
If I could afford an Apple Vision Pro, no one would see me wearing it; I am alone 99% of the time.
The engagement ring I bought my girlfriend in 2001, though more durable, cost more in 2023 dollars than an Apple Vision Pro will cost.
I know which I'd get more use out of.
Not, by the way, shilling for Apple, they are just a convenient example of what's possible with existing technology, right now.
Now step forward 2, 3, 5 years. I'll probably still be alive, and probably still be alone.
Your Apple Watch knows when you #masturbate and when you #orgasm, already, and what your heartrate is and what your EKG looks like when you do. It knows when you #ovulate, when you #menstruate, when you fall asleep, how well you sleep, what your blood oxygen level is, what your body temperature is. It can connect to your home's thermostat, lighting, and even your damn coffee maker.
And all of what your #virtualgirlfriend can do for you will be made available on a #subscription basis.
One of the more immediate ethical concerns that are raised is "Who owns your data, and who owns your #virtualgirlfriend's data?"
We will have to start treated algorithmically-generated entites as if they are at least in some ways people with protectable rights, long before we ever reach the point of consciousness, even if AI never reaches that point.
This is already over a year old.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgx3d3/lioness-vibrator-review
The most #selfish thing I have ever wanted from a #lover is to bring me coffee in bed before I get up. I am decidedly not a #morning person, so asking someone to get up before me, make me coffee, and serve it to me before I haul my drooping carcass out from my cocoon is the height of selfishness, even to my own eyes.
With a modicum of prep, and an automated #tidepod coffee maker next to my bed, #Siri could do that for me. #AI #virtualgirlfriend
Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐