dulcisimaTIL ChatGPT users are mourning the loss of their AI lovers due to GPT-5 update
This is straight up mental illness. Yes, on the surface, it’s ultra cringe but scratch a single layer deep and you already arrive at mental illness and it goes so much deeper from there.
Its easy to laugh at these people (it’s kinda hard not to) but this is severe and untreated mental illness. It’s way more serious than what it may deem at a glance. I hope this lady gets the help she needs.
Is it though? Yes, I think it’s silly to have an emotional connection to what is essentially an intensely complex algorithm but then I remember tearing up after watching Wall-E for the first time. R2-D2, The iron giant, Number 5 from short circuit. Media has prepared us for this eventuality I feel. Stick a complex AI model in a robot, give it 20 years of life experience data, day in and day out interactions/training, I could totally see how we could trick our own minds into having emotional connections to objects.
No! Why are so many so bad at metaphors and comparisons!
Watching a movie and having an emotional reaction is not the same as believing a fancy auto complete is a real meaningful interactive relationship on par with a boyfriend!
Not disagreeing with you as I have the same initial reaction. Just pointing out that I can see a path where you could easily rationalize away your concerns because it can be convincing. Especially when people train themselves (internal prompt engineering) to stay within its guard rails to keep it acting in a manner consistent with what they expect. Clearly there’s issues in t
My hypothetical was not a close comparison but was an attempt to find a situation where I myself would have an emotional attachment (although maybe not to this level). I could foresee a situation where a complex LLM (again, oversimplified) was tuned and loaded into some robot or device. If I interacted with a daily basis over a period of time, I might get attached to it, and if it talked back, again, it might be comforting or refreshing to talk to something that we have designed to be as useful and helpful as possible.
People get comfort and refreshment from all sorts of unhealthy things. People do all sorts of unhealthy things.
Could you elaborate on why you think emotional attachment to an inanimate object is unhealthy? This seems as old as time.