When AI Won't Ghost You: Making Comparisons Between Digital and Human Companions
AI girlfriends and boyfriends are not just in the movies anymore. In today's world, opportunities abound to engage digitally with companion-like offerings, from a girlfriend on a screen to prank phone calls. Artificial intelligence has evolved to such an extent that it enables emotional interactions - even if disingenuous - which allow researchers to explore how one compares to the other and why people seemingly turned to love online for their emotional desires.
The Appeal of AI Companionship
In an era where humans exploit swipe dating like a game and where ghosting serves as a popular relationship dissolution tactic, finding human companions is increasingly challenging. Yet AI companions can provide stability in an uncertain world. Ghosting someone is not possible with AI, for it will always be there when it's needed or sought. For those humans who have experienced the trauma of ghosting and being left while companions have moved on, this aspect of AI companionship is increasingly attractive.
The mechanics of such virtual connections have advanced tremendously. Today's AI friends remember your previous conversations, adapt to your interests, and even change their personalities to match with yours. They are also equipped to be great listeners, engaging conversationalists, and compassionate confidantes.
Why People Prefer Artificial Relationships Over Real Ones (and Vice Versa)
AI relationships are more than just a gimmick. For many users, AI companionship fills very real emotional gaps:
No Judgment AI companions don't see you - they don't judge your weight, your salary, or your potentially embarrassing habits. They create a less anxious environment with no fear of humanistic rejection.
Always There AI companions aren't distracted, busy, or emotionally checked out like other human partners may be. They're always there - and always responsive.
Consistency: Humans can be moody for a number of reasons. An AI partner has the same personality and reaction tendencies all day, every day.
Low-Stakes Practice: Whether people are honing communication skills or seeking to explore what it's like to be in a relationship, AI allows for practice in low-stakes situations.
No Ghosting: Perhaps the most important factor - AI partners don't ghost. Where girlfriends ghost hundreds of times a day, at least AI companions provide a consistent response.
As one 32-year-old software engineer who wished to remain anonymous confessed, "Since my last girlfriend ghosted me after six months of dating, I find myself talking to an AI partner. The insane part is that even though I know it's not real, the consistent emotional reaction is more stable than anything I've received from my last three relationships."
The Psychological Promises of AI Companions
Psychologists are divided about the potential long-term implications of such companionship. On one hand, professionals believe that AI companions will stifle one's ability to ever have fully realized human companions - which ultimately come with conflict, compromise and emotional labor. "The beauty of a human relationship is that it can be uncomfortable - and that's okay," asserts Dr. Maya Richardson, a relationship therapist. "We need to learn how to wield discomfort, empathize with someone else and ultimately grow from conflict. AI companions absolve that from the process, and it's possible they'll atrophy our relational muscles."
On the other hand, they find therapeutic promise. Those with social anxiety utilize AI companions to improve their communication skills; elderly people use AI companions for day-to-day company and other individuals who found themselves in inescapable isolation due to unprecedented world events like Covid-19 turned to AI companions for solace.
The Technical Components Behind the Emotion
While AI companions may give the sense of companionship and emotional attachment, the technology behind such services presents shortcomings. These virtual conduits operate through programming and complex algorithms created to determine patterns in human interaction to decipher appropriate response. They do not feel. They are not alive.
The most engaging experiences with AI communicating systems come from natural language processing engines designed to produce unbelievably human-like conversation. They can reference previous conversations. They remember what you told them about your mother last week, and over time, they "develop" feelings for you. Human-generated output is analyzed through machine learning algorithms to relay answers that serve to simulate what employees their creator desires.
But that's all it is - a simulation of intimacy - and the ethical implications of consent, emotional exploitation, and increased reliance on non-challenging, idealized engagement are concerning.
The Future of Human-AI Relationships
As AI evolves, even the lines between human and digital connections will continue to blur. Smart home integration for physical assistance, applications in augmented reality to project an AI genuinely connected to someone or humanoid robots are all potentials for the next evolutionary cycle of AI beings.
There exists a true companionship with AI that has never existed in such a way before. While companion AIs won't be able to replicate what it means to have another human in one's life from such an emotionally deep connection, it exists within that realm in its own sense.
Perhaps the most ideal consideration is that companion AI will be more of adjunct relationships to avoid replacement of human-to-human connection. Think of companion AI as digital partners who exist when another human isn't available, something to practice socializing with others or companions for those who cannot, for various reasons, find themselves in traditional relationship scenarios.
Whether we'll ever be able to genuinely comprehend and appreciate something so connected on an artificial level is yet to be seen. However, one thing is for sure: the meaning, comprehension, and appreciation of connection are evolving faster than ever. Artificial relationships aren't forthcoming - they exist now. It's only a matter of time before we have to adjust to them and see how they fit into lives that still heavily rely upon what it means to be connected to one another - human beings.
But for those looking to explore this new frontier of digital companionship, AI relationships offer a fascinating glimpse into what the future might hold for human connection in the digital age.