There are now countless numbers of text neural networks. By answering questions mechanically, they often do not recognize the context of the conversation. Or they answer unnaturally. At the same time, there are specialized chats or interlocutor services that communicate humanly. They will support the conversation, help you practice a foreign language, listen, and take part in life like roleplay.
The Need For AI Friends
Although artificial intelligence can create marketing strategies, write code, and suggest Excel formulas, some people prefer to use it to create the illusion of a romantic relationship.
Love is always fantasy and illusion. We endow our partners with traits that we would like to see and do not notice undesirable qualities in them. Almost always, our lovers are projections of our fantasies of a real person.
When hormonal levels return to normal, the intensity of projections decreases. The angular features of reality emerge from the romantic fog, and disappointment sets in — not necessarily, but quite often.
Now, a “cheat” has appeared, allowing us to leave only our ideas about the ideal and exclude the person from the relationship. And no, it’s not phone sex. It’s artificial intelligence. More precisely, the speech model is something like a personalized version of ChatGPT.
Virtual Friends
While everyone was admiring the capabilities of the free ChatGPT 3, scolding it for giving out false information and thinking about upgrading to a paid version, companies emerged, providing advanced, personalized chatbots for romantic relationships. Any average developer can find an open-source speech model and customize it. But only some are developers. Therefore, commercial services in this area are gaining momentum.
Companies that provide access to romantic chatbots simply personalize the speech pattern. Essentially, the client is talking about his reflection. Stupid? Perhaps, but this is what pleases the majority in authentic relationships — to know what the partner will say now, to continue phrases one after another. Artificial intelligence copes with this ideally and, at the same time, does not scatter socks around the apartment; it is always at hand.
Are They New?
Voice assistants in mobile devices have primarily prepared society for the emergence of AI companions for relationships. The developers have long taught them to joke and use phrases with emotional overtones. “I don’t recommend speeding up here,” “It was great — I love being a navigator,” or even “Well, we were sitting well,” plus a couple of minutes of silence in response to a rude phrase. And the fact that these jokes are repeated bothers few people — live interlocutors also rarely shine with variety.
The prerequisite for creating chatbots was a comprehensive study of artificial intelligence. Back in 1950, scientist Alan Turing developed a special test, the results of which were planned to determine whether a machine could think. The user communicated with the person and the computer not in turn but randomly. Based on the answers, he had to understand who the interlocutor was — a program or a person.
The first chatbot, named “Eliza,” was written in the 60s of the last century by its author, Professor Joseph Weizenbaum. It was just a virtual interlocutor, but so successful that he was constantly mistaken for a living person. By today, the development and widespread implementation of chatbots, according to experts, promises to become a standard. They take on routine tasks and interact with customers, for which the company was previously forced to use real people.
In addition, users have long had access to various games where they interact with characters. However, in such entertainment, the gameplay limits the range of character reactions. Communication bots have much broader capabilities. They are limited only by the character’s personality traits.
Therapeutic Effect
The more you communicate with it, the better it works — it knows what to say at the right moment, can give useful advice, and can recommend a movie or song. It also stimulates users: since the bot constantly develops, its interlocutor feels like a creator.
Psychotherapeutic effect
Companies setting up personalized speech patterns also say there are challenges associated with it. Despite many enthusiastic reviews, many users bitterly believe such communication is an admission of their defeat in building genuine relationships.
The question remains whether romantic chatbots are harmful or beneficial to mental health. On the one hand, they are most likely capable of providing a therapeutic effect in a difficult situation. On the other hand, because of the habit of communicating with an ideal interlocutor, it is difficult for a person to later return to relationships with real people with all their shortcomings.
Ethical Issues
Finally, the question remains open about the ethical side of the activities of companies that help grow a virtual partner. For example, is it correct to create a speech model that imitates the personality of a deceased spouse? And the now living but former lover? What about a natural person who doesn’t even suspect that a clone has been made from his digital footprint online for tender, and perhaps even heated, conversations? Yes, it seems there are still more questions than answers.
However, choosing a virtual personality for communication and role-playing raises far fewer ethical dilemmas. It is a great way to find like-minded people and immensely enjoy the AI roleplay. This way, you get opportunities you don’t have in real life. We can’t communicate with a vampire or a dragon. But AI allows you to immerse yourself in the fascinating world of role-playing games and gain a unique experience.
Conclusion
There is no need to be afraid of AI chat bots. It is an excellent opportunity to gain new experiences and immerse yourself in a different reality. The capabilities of neural networks allow you to create real personalities of famous characters and communicate with them. This way, you can talk to a vampire or a werewolf, chat with comic book characters, etc. This way, your role-playing game will be as close to reality as possible. The virtual interlocutor never goes out of character and does not spoil the impression of the game. It is the ideal interlocutor who will give you unforgettable emotions.
