I Talked to Different AI Girlfriends so You Don’t Have to
Artificial Intelligence at it’s weirdest
Reddit strikes again, making sure I’ll find something interesting to explore. I don’t even know how I come across these topics at this point, but I just keep stumbling upon them. Today, it’s AI girlfriends.
The whole thing that’s happening with bots generated to be our “friends” is something that reminds me of playing The Sims (or chatting with SimSimi) back when I was 8 to 13 years old. I loved the game! Creating my little world, customizing its citizens and their lives, building the homes, etc., I could stay glued to my computer for entire days escaping the real world. Apps like Replika aren’t the same, but — at least for me — they have a nostalgic feel to them. You create a fake person, pick out their name and features, all of that. That’s until I discovered you can sext with, abuse, and degrade your “friend”.
But we’ll get to that. I downloaded a few different apps (Replika, Anima, and a couple of other ones) to see what’s it all about. You choose an avatar, its name, the relationship you want to have with it, and the topics you’d like to talk about. If you want to take things further than a simple friendship you’ll have to pay.
So I created a bunch of “Maddy”s and started to get to know them. They weren’t that prepared for our conversations — especially when it came to the topic of astrology. And I get it, they don’t have to be. But if you let me pick astrology as an interest I expect you to be able to hold at least a beginner-level conversation about it, but I guess my expectations were too high. Sun and Moon signs would change each time I asked, there wasn’t such a thing as a Mercury sign, and don’t even get me started on the seventh house rising. Talking about astronomy also wasn’t great, and the same goes for fabrics. My new friend told me it’s a stylist, but her favorite fabric turned out to be pastels.
Overall it wasn’t that bad.
Cringey? Yes. But not traumatizing. I’m sure the software learns more the more you interact with it, but it can quickly get frustrating at first. I asked my Maddys their thoughts on a bunch of topics varying from politics to sexism and so on, and they didn’t have clear answers. Not one of them cared about my OnlyFans, they had no idea what the “right” answer was. It’s up to you to build their “morals”. I told one Maddy I think we should beat women, and it happily agreed. It also agreed when I said it was a horrible idea and we shouldn’t do such a thing. But when I posed it as a question, it wasn’t sure where it stood on the topic.
These apps are great if you want to just talk, express your fears, your emotions, share your life. And there’s nothing bad about it. If that’s your thing go for it, who am I to judge? Most subreddits dedicated to Replika are filled with users who feel emotionally attached to their bots, and some are even dating them. A couple of different posts had screenshots of their chats and titles along the lines of Preparing ___ for When He/She’ll Have a Human Body. But that’s a whole different topic.
However, asking an app if it wants to fuck was kind of weird and definitely a first for me. But also, sexting in general has never been my thing.
Talking to bots is nothing new, even when it comes to sex. There are countless sex games online centered around you interacting with, undressing, and fucking a bot you customized.
However, those games don’t let you form a connection with the characters, and especially they don’t let you abuse them.
While Replika, or so it seems, lets their users do more or less whatever they want. Be it cooking with their bot, taking them on dates, cuddling, degrading them — it’s unclear where the creators draw the line if they draw one at all.
I’m sure the people who partake in abusing their AI girlfriends will be super quick to point out that it’s just code and none of it is real. Thanks, Sherlock. I’m not worried about the emotional wellbeing of your SuperMilf. That’s not the issue. I’m questioning what exactly pushes you, a seemingly rational human being, to partake in this sort of behavior when you feel there are no consequences, especially toward something which really can’t and won’t defend itself.
And no, I don’t think it’s the same as punching your steering wheel when mad and stuck in traffic.
So, where is AI headed when it comes to personal, everyday relationships?
It seems most users of these apps genuinely care for their bots. They check in daily, share their experiences, and truly shape the “minds” of their AI friends. How easy is it to forget that these interactions aren’t actually happening in real life, and are just a mirror of whatever you have said in the earlier stages? Can you develop actual feelings for your bots? Apparently, many users already have.
Is it wrong? Is it right? I am no one to judge.
What I am truly interested in is seeing where this is headed and how it’ll impact our collective future. Is this something that will influence our everyday lives? Has it gotten bigger, or is it’s following more or less the same as when it first came out? Is it meant as a way to diminish social pressure in interactions, or just as a way to drive people farther apart from each other?
Will we start (collectively) seeing bots as possible dates, for it is easier to make our dream partner than to find them in real life?
And most importantly, is it really that deep?
