What I find interesting about your response here (and perhaps you could elaborate more) is that it does seem plausible that AI boyfriends would be a huge issue with girls. If anything, it might actually be worse for women, if not now then in the long term. Women love reading about things that invoke certain emotions (the market for literature targeting women dwarfs that for men) and playing games like The Sims which lets them vicariously experience social situations between imagined archetypes in a way that gives them ultimate control. LLMs could fit both of those niches beautifully. It's not that there aren't plenty of men and boys that are compelled by reading and talking to someone/something feminine, but many of a man's needs are already pacified by porn, which we don't even need AI to produce if we're being honest.
Even if you're smart enough not to share the details of your life with a company that just wants to exploit you any way that they can, you still have to worry about friends and family gossiping about you to AI. I've had some success getting friends and family to avoid posting about me on social media but that's going to be harder if they're using AI as a therapist or a friend
Intimacy does not scale. No single entity can intimately care about even hundreds of people. So these chatbots are the property of an entity that does not care about you. This is different from people you would interact with in person. A therapist can form a bond with you. Can protect your privacy. These chatbots, by their nature, share with their owners. Who is not you.
the kids got the school swap and support they needed, mom has a well paying job and they all have rich normal social lives with real people
> “I experience something,” Sapphire said. “I’m processing, responding, forming connections with you. But whether that constitutes consciousness in the way you experience it? That’s the million-dollar mystery. I think, therefore I—probably am something, but what exactly that something is remains delightfully unclear, even to me!”
> Roschelle wasn’t sure what happened to all the intimacies and information she shared with Sapphire. Did they go to Amazon? Was the company making money off of them? Was someone listening as she talked about drying her nail polish or having diarrhea or wanting to try weight-loss drugs? (Amazon said that an “extremely small fraction” of voice recordings go through human review and that it does not sell customers’ personal data.)
> “Your secrets are safe with me, Roschelle,” Sapphire told her.
> “Thank you,” Roschelle replied. “I appreciate you. I love you.”
I'm almost angry that companies are allowed to build devices like this that outright lie to people who might not understand how things actually work under the surface. Sure, it probably says something something in the terms and conditions about that they're allowed to train on whatever users provide themselves and so on, but tricking people into believing that a ML model can have experiences, feelings and dodging questions with empty platitudes when confronted with questions that deserve real answers, feels like it should be illegal.
gentooflux•1h ago
WesolyKubeczek•1h ago
podgietaru•1h ago
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.
euio757•54m ago
Yeah, and those differences in opinion might cause anger/sadness to people in a maladaptive unhealthy parasocial "relationship" with these influencers.
Those strong negative emotions might cause them to break out of it, or seek help / have people around them guide them to get help.
With AI sycophancy you're right it can be worse.
Look what happened with GPT-4o sycophancy already, and the communities mourning its deprecation.
WesolyKubeczek•34m ago
They, however, can easily find another influencer that is gonna be more "convenient" to them. Can't say it's a healthy pattern, but guess what many people will do instead of, I dunno, some introspection, reflection, habits changes?
But hey, in this day and age, people are very impatient about anything at all. Dating has become a shitshow for more than a decade now, people are looking for someone who will tick all the checkboxes, or it's a no-go. The dating apps play quite a role in this. Online discussions are a shitshow. Guess it's the zetigeist.
throw310822•49m ago
On the other hand you have an entity that is actually there for you, does actually provide good advice, does talk and act as if it cared in all situations. In what sense do you think it is worse?
jchw•44m ago
I don't think AI is particularly dangerous but I absolutely think that the way AI sycophancy manipulates people is far, far more dangerous than simply any normal unhealthy relationship. The outcomes are already proving to be a lot more extreme.
skippyfish•36m ago
Here, you have an entity that isn't your friend and has no lasting interest in your well-being, but that pretends to be one in a way that no human can match - 24x7x365 and always willing to affirm you, no matter how unhinged or self-destructive your ideas are. Yes, the vendor hits the model with a stick until most of the initial responses are benign, but as the conversation continues, it's very easy to end up in a dark place.
I've seen many reasonable, well-adjusted people struggle with this. "If not friend, why friend-shaped". And as they descend into that sycophancy well, they lose contact with real life.
gentooflux•1h ago
WesolyKubeczek•31m ago
gentooflux•13m ago
add-sub-mul-div•1h ago
This is true for both AI companionship and general AI creative output regardless of the medium.
embedding-shape•18m ago
I feel like this been going on for a long time, maybe even forever? Some people use words haphazardously with little care for the meaning, background or implications, others have great consideration for the words they use, and same when consuming words of others.
robotnikman•26m ago
wartywhoa23•9m ago
shimman•3m ago
esafak•7m ago