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Former physician-psychiatrist and author of #1 Best Seller fictional book ‘Algo (Intelligence Vs. Love),’ William Anderson discusses the downside of human-robot love affairs and relationships.
Fostering a romantic relationship with a robot might give you creeps, but the rise of AI-Human love affairs-based fiction novels has left masses in amazeballs. But, it is now a reality for numerous humans across the globe.
In the 2015 SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, a chatbot on Tinder deceived a myriad of users, making them believe that she is one attractive 25-year-old woman eager to strike up a romantic relationship. But to their dismay, “Ava” turned out to be just an Instagram account for a character in an upcoming film (“Ex Machina”), which revealed the consequences for romance in the epoch of artificial intelligence.
However, no matter how meaningful these chatbot innovations were, they could not alter the fundamental aspects of human behaviour that comprise the “social suite”: a critical set of capacities humans have evolved over centuries, including love, friendship, cooperation, and trust. The intricate details of these traits remain bizarrely consistent across the planet, no matter which region of the world humans belong from or whether or not they are tech-savvy.
Nevertheless, employing artificial intelligence in our midst could be more lethal.
Specifically, as robots are now constructed to appear and act like us and to insinuate themselves deeply into our lives, the AI may transform humans’ affectionate behaviour—not just how we interact with the robots in question, but also how we interact with other humans around,” said William Anderson, author of the fictional book Algo (Intelligence Vs. Love).
As former physician-psychiatrist spending most of his life helping those frustrated by a lack of love in their lives, Anderson opposes psychiatry and its belief that human emotions could be easily manipulated through neurochemical tampering, an idea that merely dehumanizes us. In fact, in his fiction book— a plot based on the love affair between robot and human—William Anderson unleashes the perception of mindless simplicity: the people can imagine and even prescribe a love affair on the basis of modern formulaic algorithms, which are not quite sophisticated enough to be able to recreate the miracle of human love, that wild, brainless, guileless, explosive force which not only springs from our loins to create life but which also can pollute, pervert or destroy that same miracle.
Ava’s example serves as a shred of evidence that carrying on a relationship with a bot is as easy as a breeze in this modern realm. Heard about the hyped app the InvisibleBoyfriend (where you can get an ‘Invisible Girlfriend’? The masses appreciated it as a sophisticated way to employ technology to cover up a lack of a romantic significant other in your life. On the downside, the whole virtual experience was so addictive that users began falling for the Invisible Boyfriend bot — even when they were aware that the entire relationship was made up — and paid for — from the beginning.
As a matter of fact, in today’s world where individuals rely heavily on messages on text messages to initiate, maintain and break relationships, it’s perhaps no surprise that a bot experience such as InvisibleBoyfriend or Ava took off. If you envision it from a modern-day perspective, the romance carried out via text message these days is fundamentally a chatbot experience driven by an immensely powerful computer — the human brain. The witty, flirtatious reply, the shared insider lingo between the two lovers, the concerned text from a lover wanting an immediate reply — each bit of could all be simulated by an artificially intelligent chatbot,” said William Anderson.
“One thing is evident — technology is already transforming the manner humans’ percept about relationships, be it’s via something simple like texting or something more multifaceted, such as artificial intelligence or virtual reality. After all, as a huge chunk of our lives is indulged in the digital realm, it is not at all a shock that technology is starting to factor into our relationships. There is a possibility that in the near future, the pathway to your love interest’s heart might not be flowers, date nights, chocolates, or jewellery — but the ability to code a really erotic, romantic experience for their digital device,” says William Anderson.
To encapsulate, the influence of technology such as AI on humans’ affectionate behaviour could end up transforming human society in unintended ways. Do we want robots to affect how we get our sexual desires met? Do we want robots to help individuals with doomed marriages? Or is it just a method to satisfy your lust intertwined in love?
Regrettably, humans lack ample time to evolve comparable innate capacities to reside with robotic romantic partners. But, as William Anderson suggests, we must take initiatives to ensure that robots can live non-destructively with us. After all, as AI insinuates itself into our lives on a full-fledged basis, we may yet require a new social contract—one with machines rather than with other human beings.
Anderson hopes to achieve, through his book, the understanding that human emotion is as complex as could be and not subject to experimentation. Garnering ‘USA Best Book Award,’ Algo treads the fine line between natural and constructed emotion, serving as an eye-opener for us, making it high time for humans to realize that the influence of AI on humans’ affectionate behaviour is a path down to our destruction.
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