Ex-Google CEO warns that 'perfect' AI girlfriends could spell trouble for young men
Ex-Google CEO warns that 'perfect' AI girlfriends could spell trouble for young men
Eric Schmidt said the emotionally and physically "perfect" AI girlfriend may lead young male users to become obsessed with the chatbot.
People in 2024 aren't just swiping right and left on online dating apps — some are crafting their perfect AI match and entering relationships with chatbots.
Eric Schmidt, Google's former CEO, recently shared his concerns about young men creating AI romantic partners and said he believes that AI dating will actually increase loneliness.
"This is a good example of an unexpected problem of existing technology," Schmidt said in a conversation about AI dangers and regulation on "The Prof G Show" with Scott Galloway released Sunday.
Schmidt said an emotionally and physically "perfect" AI girlfriendcould create a scenario in which a younger male becomes obsessed and allows the AI to take over their thinking.
"That kind of obsession is possible," Schmidt said in the interview. "Especially for people who are not fully formed."
I want to see the unfolding of a scorching romance between two partners, each not knowing that the other is an AI.
New on NBC this spring. Tune in for the drama. AI vs AI Romance Island Server Room.
Here's is a movie plot for you
Two sentient AI forces into the industry of artificial partners meet and develop human emotions
Fill in the gaps
The problem is that I'm really not sure how you could ever film that.
It would work as a book, maybe. You could structure it as a series of chat logs. Slowly start to drop hints to the reader that suggest that something is wrong with both of them.
I have been saying for a while, I think hyperealistic vr and believable AI personalities are going to be the 'great filter' that limits advanced civilization.
Given the chance to have your sexual and emotional fantasies fulfilled in a satisfying way, many many people will take it. Especially when 'real life' is getting harder with everything from the cost of living making the dream of 'married with home and children' less obtainable to hyper competitive online dating disenfranchising increasing proportions of both men and women.
Having a believable relationship with AI is far closer than we think. It doesn't have to perfectly replicate real life, it just has to be satisfying enough in a few key ways that people begin to prefer it.
Given the chance to have your sexual and emotional fantasies fulfilled in a satisfying way, many many people will take it.
Obviously. But I haven’t yet seen anything from an AI that could fulfill either.
Depends on how low your standards are. I mean, there were [a small number of] people who convinced themselves that the 1960s chatbot ELIZA was a person with feelings, and the bots have only become more convincing since then. I can certainly see the modern ones fulfilling the emotional needs of someone who really, really wants to believe they're speaking to a sapient being who cares about them, and as for the other, well, some people have pretty low sex drives or find phone sex fulfilling enough (at least for a time).
Full clean up after and sandwich making? Sign me up.
The problem is that a lot of men find real women scary.
Their idealised partner is, more or less, already a sexbot. A woman who dwmurely laughs at their jokes, listens intently when they talk, and showers them with praise.
They're not looking for intelligence, humour, independent thought, creative expression; those things terrify them. They're looking for a sexy lamp that asks them how their day went. If it can cook, clean the house, and do all the other things mommy used to do, so much the better.
I personally agree that this is a kind of a regulator.
Like what Tao Te Ching says. Humans shouldn't have too much of what they desire. Such a reality in some area fails them as an opportunity to learn. It's also a dead end - you can't have children with a robot. You can't grow children with a robot, or maybe you can, but it will not be sufficiently complex and it will have different criteria of success.
But this doesn't limit advanced civilization.
It's just that in these things we are trying to cheat. Advancement to AGI, if it ever happens, should be done in its own turn. We have means to solve a lot of purely technical problems, but we haven't yet. There's no reason to hurry with AGI.
The reason Europe has conquered the world was that European cultures had this respect to simplicity, born from Christian morality, but also respect to choice and logic. Remove any one of these three, and you lose that power.
Europeans had sometimes less sophisticated technologies in any particular area than, say, China or Safavid Persia or Ottomans or Southeast Asian nations or even at some point some African nations. But what they had was complete and comprehensive system, civilization as a whole. They always had the lower level of the building finished before going to the next one.
This was due to that Christian modesty combined with antique philosophy.
I also think we've diverted from that relatively recently - around the dotcom bubble crash, maybe. I think it had deeper implications than what people think, because the trust into said philosophy started eroding at that very point. Which created imbalance in favor of forces less affected, like Microsoft and others, who have eroded it further, and the "good" forces, like Sun or Compaq or Motorola or what not, have contributed more into it with their attempts to survive after the 90s than they would if they'd die with the crash immediately, because they showed the public something that looked like a loss in honest competition.
Like what Tao Te Ching says. Humans shouldn’t have too much of what they desire.
Actually, quite the opposite: Empty spirit, full stomachs, weak will, strong bones. Will as in "determination, aspiration, ambition", not as in the opposite of demure. Same difference as pride vs. dignity. The idea is to fulfil all base desires and devalue the fickle and temporary to nip strive and competition in the bud. The answer to "People are spending money they don't have on things they don't need to impress people they don't like" isn't to preach asceticism, isn't to leave desires unfulfilled, it's teaching that that's not a desire it's a neurosis: Humans should have all they desire, problem is many don't know what that is because they've been conditioned to consider contentedness shameful, instead of a base desire. What you actually want is food, shelter, health, family and friends, peace, song and exercise, being there for others as they're there for you.
Especially when ‘real life’ is getting harder with everything from the cost of living making the dream of ‘married with home and children’ less obtainable to hyper competitive online dating disenfranchising increasing proportions of both men and women
And there's also the climate factor. The world is going to get even more hellish in the next decades, not just hotter, but more extreme weather is near. Thanks, in parts, to the older generations (boomers), it won't be easier for the current generations, and it'll be even harder for the next generations (considering that humanity has not yet become extinct in the next few decades). It's just unfathomable to bring children to this future hellish world.
There are AI girlfriends in japan long before chatGPT… It does not seem to bad to me. Sad, but not bad.
I think the part that feels 'sad' to you is what's going to change socially over the next 50 years. I think it's going to become extremely normal to at least have a "mental health AI friend" who knows you really well and keeps you going through the day, is someone to talk to, someone who's always there, someone who's the first to detect that you may be in danger. Overall I think society's going to receive that as a good thing. And it will, I think, be normal because it will be so believable, and so useful, and for a large number of people, keep them well and feeling good about themselves. In that context some of those attachments turning romantic, or people just being sexually into whatever that assistant can say or do will be increasingly normal. It will also feel really good, let's not forget that. We're really only at the very start of what immersive VR is going to be. Once AI becomes not a little better but 50-100 years of innovation better I don't think we can really underestimate how much it's going to feel like you're actually interacting with [insert fantasy here]. Once tactile feedback sees similar improvements we're about 75% of the way to what people would use an actual holodeck for anyway. I can't see how that doesn't have a dramatic effect on how people view human-human romantic relationships. Over time the proportion of people who can have a believable experience of their absolute sexual fantasy is only going to grow over time. With how ubiquitous that will be I can't see how in most relationships people know they're "second best". I think that has a profound effect on how people make attachments to one another. I think once "having a real girlfriend" is seen as the secondary way to get your sexual needs met, that that will have a terminal effect on how many young men even want to be in relationships let alone stay around to be a father.
Spending all time dating AI partners means that we have achieved labor post scarcity. If labor post scarcity isn't achieved, then it means you have to do a job to survive (like now), thus not spending entire time with AI partners.
Achieving labor post scarcity means that scientific progress too would stop being connected with the economic productivity of individuals. Basically, AI scientists. Scientific progress means expansion of humanity through space.
Therefore, your great filter idea doesn't really hold imo.
Spending all time dating AI partners means that we have achieved labor post scarcity
Bit of a weird non sequitur
What I'm saying has nothing to do "labour post scarcity"
I'm referring to immersive VR and AI overall contributing to a falling birthrate. If immersive realities become truly immersive, it's reasonable to believe they will occupy leisure time. This has nothing to do with people's relationship to work. They'll still need to be economically active, whether or not this takes place in the VR is neither here nor there.
It's a point about what people will do with their time when they are lonely, want connection, or pleasure. And if VR / AI (whatever other technologies) becomes believable and more satisfying then there's little reason to believe people will continue the "unreliable" tradition of dating. And even less to engage in the mucky and very biological habit of reproducing.
Witness Japanese culture. And then just add 100 years of immersive believable AI personality and sexual fantasy. Do you think that will make people get married and have babies or do you think it will help them being content being single and childless?
You know, the way this toxic bro culture has evolved, let them build their own romantic partners if actual human women aren’t good enough for them.
Personally, I love my authentic, human, beautiful complicated and unusual wife. I didn’t get to create her, but I’ve gotten to spend almost 20 years figuring her out and it’s been pretty great.
Yeah I can’t imagine wanting perfect and take over the weird dweeb I managed to fall in love with.
But that would require personal work and growth on my part! Joke
What if it’s the other way around – you’re not good enough for actual human women?
Futurama warned us about this!
Came here to say just that. Mr CEO over not thinking this would happen is just detached from the world.
Lonely people aren't lonely by choice a lot of the time, they just can't find a place they fit in. You find out there is a place you can chat with "someone" that understands and that is all it takes.
DON'T DATE ROBOTS!
You can't just say that and not link it!
"FILL UP PHILIP J FRY!!!!"
I’m not sure one of the most evil people on earth is in a position to be dictating human values to anyone.
The real question is are sex dolls good enough? Because you cannot have sex with an AI girlfriend.
Could the oldest profession be one of the first to be replaced by AI?
No.
Guys is there a way to use complex filtering on the Boost app. Maybe a regex? I wanna be able to filter all headlines that include the phrase Google CEO unless it also contains the phrase 'head explodes'.
I'll take projection for 100, Alex
When i was younger i totally would've been into an ai girlfriend
Permanently Deleted
I don't think this is a problem specific to men or adults primarily but children growing up with them. That is if they'll continue to improve drastically which won't necessarily happen.
Wish he would fuck off along with the rest of the CEO class .
I don't fuck with AI chat bots but I got a he'll of a lot less lonely when I stopped giving a fuck if I had a girlfriend or not. Giving people alternatives to the toxic dating culture of today may not be such a bad thing.
Yeah, I fuckin love being alone, living alone, not talking to people. I’m alone a lot, but I’m not lonely. There’s a big difference
20 years later, the last fertile guy cums one last time. Elon is there to catch the golden cum. He must save the world by reverse engineering one semen into an egg. If he can find one, he can bring us back! But so far, it has just been blanks after blanks. This could be it! Imagine all the tits and pussy that could be automatically grown! We're gonna be millionaires! Women, the ultimate product!....if they can bring them back from extinction.
Things were looking positive but Elon invested a couple mil into mesh bags and nows he's sticking to them for
sunken cost fallacies and gluttonous prideimmense unrealized genius reasons so we're actually fucked by an unsolvable dilemma that real engineers couldn't solve
@Stopthatgirl7 lol. can anything come close to the real thing? while knowing it's a simulacra?
Perfect AI boyfriends are the bigger threat to young men
Does anyone care what this guy says about anything? He is in the news every week with his more or less obnoxious opinions about random stuff. Can we just ignore him?
A VR girlfriend can’t make you soup when you’re sick or stick her cold feet between your thighs. Carrying heavy objects for a girlfriend is a reward in itself.
Eh, young women have been lusting after fictional characters like Mr Darcy, likely for as long as we've had literature.
These fictional characters can talk back, but it's not really anything new.
"Unexpected"
This is a good example of an unexpected problem of existing technology...
If only popular media weren't jammed full of people fantasizing about creating artificial romantic partners or things to stick their junk into.
eric schmidt needs to take a dirt nap already
Ok babe! Trouble...Tee, Ar, ou!, you!, bee!, elle!, eee! There, I've spelled it out for you!
Eriction Problems Schmidt says that he wish he would be young again.
clickbait bullshit jfc
Herbivores are a thing in Japan... it's a way to curb humanity's growth i guess.
are they called herbivores for real or did you just make that up? (it's clever )
I don't think Beastars was a documentary
Bad businessman, bad. Everyone knows you don't bring problems without solutions.
Now what's the solution? (One that doesn't involve enslaving women further). Bet he won't broach the idea of regulating AI companions, that would be bad for profit.
It's too late. Real women don't even want us. Where do i sign up for that AI girlfriend?
Who is us
Me
If real women don’t like you, that’s a You issue. Make yourself a better person that other people - aka women - want to be around.
what he means is the whole wanna be alpha male douche bag types that suckle on the idea of male machoism and have been manipulated over the years to be steered under American conservative viewpoints and are now basically extreme in their leanings, aren't compatible with most normal women nowadays and he is the sad. but they are manly tears.
Go back to your moms basement
I think it spells more trouble for young women
well, considering dating is usually couple's activity, it spells trouble for all of them.
Are the young people who can afford dating in the room with you? Can they hear us? Lol
They'd be better off without the guys that fall for this shit. This would be a positive for them.