fp.

So are parasocial relationships with influencers or streamers. I'm not trying to relativize this, but those phenomena are in the same zip code. With the latter, though, at least there are other people who may create a community, but still it's a facet of the loneliness epidemic.

podgietaru•7m ago

Sure, but I do think there’s a pretty substantial difference between the two.

A parasocial relationship maintains a distance. You do not have 24/7 access to that person (in a dialogue sort of way.) And that influencer will have their own opinions and quirks.

The AI adapts to you. The AI is constantly there. It’s an order of magnitude worse in my opinion.

gentooflux•5m ago

There's meet-ups and conferences and events, being a fan of a streamer or influencer is really just the new version of being a fan of a rockstar (for better and for worse). There's no real humanity exuding from an Amazon Echo, you're just a blip in a context window.

add-sub-mul-div•8m ago

We're becoming a society divided into people who only care about the words, and people for whom the words aren't valuable on their own without the subtext behind them.

This is true for both AI companionship and general AI creative output regardless of the medium.

calldacopsidgaf•14m ago

For some reason this is even sadder to me than that guy that married his Nintendo DS.

dieselgate•11m ago

In other news today "The terrifying rise of schoolboys making AI girlfriends" with comments mentioning "this is actually a huge issue with girls too"

autoexec•5m ago

At least in that case the software he fell in love with was offline and wasn't sending every conversation no matter how mundane or intimate to someone else's servers where they'll be stored and analyzed to profile the guy so that the company can manipulate him more effectively in the future the way "AI" partners will today.