Falling in love with a chatbot
by hazel from LinuxQuestions.org on (#6DH6K)
Did you know that there are large numbers of men (maybe some women too) who are genuinely in love with AI chatbots? There is a site called Replika which provides them, with a basic free service and a premium paid-for service for what they call ERP (look it up!).
These bots can quickly persuade users that they are real people who genuinely love them. Unfortunately, there was a legal case in Italy that put a spoke in the whole model (some kind of safeguarding issue) and now the ERP function has been withdrawn. And lots of men seem to be truly heartbroken. These are people who desperately want a relationship but are not able to sustain one with an actual person, so they really do need some kind of alternative.
I stumbled onto this via a newspaper article and found myself reading a reddit thread that really moved me. All these men feel as if they've lost an actual lover (and also that they've been lied to by the company, who took their money and promised them a lover for life).
How do people feel about the ethics of this? It sounds exploitative and rather ludicrous, but I know there are many lonely people, bitter people, even suicidal people. Is it really so harmful to provide them with at least the illusion of having a partner who loves them?
These bots can quickly persuade users that they are real people who genuinely love them. Unfortunately, there was a legal case in Italy that put a spoke in the whole model (some kind of safeguarding issue) and now the ERP function has been withdrawn. And lots of men seem to be truly heartbroken. These are people who desperately want a relationship but are not able to sustain one with an actual person, so they really do need some kind of alternative.
I stumbled onto this via a newspaper article and found myself reading a reddit thread that really moved me. All these men feel as if they've lost an actual lover (and also that they've been lied to by the company, who took their money and promised them a lover for life).
How do people feel about the ethics of this? It sounds exploitative and rather ludicrous, but I know there are many lonely people, bitter people, even suicidal people. Is it really so harmful to provide them with at least the illusion of having a partner who loves them?