‘Better than a real man’: young Chinese women turn to AI boyfriends::Twenty-five-year-old Chinese office worker Tufei says her boyfriend has everything she could ask for in a romantic partner: he’s kind, empathetic, and sometimes they talk for hours.

  • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    Things like this make me wonder if the uncanny valley exists because we’ve previously developed computer technology in the past, and it destroyed civilization, taking with it everyone who couldn’t easily distinguish between humans and AI.

    • AppaYipYip@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I like to think uncanny valley exists because of other homo species we would have interacted with in pre-history. Obviously this is just a fun theory since we have evidence of mixing.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        The simple explanation I’ve heard is that the uncanny valley protects us from diseases etc. by making us stay away from very sick or dead people. A bloated corpse is still human, so you need some part of your head to say “stay away from that thing”.

        • oatscoop@midwest.social
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          6 months ago

          Or genetic defects.

          “Something about that person is extremely off-putting. I do believe I’m not going have sex with them.”

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    If an AI friend is “better” than a normal friend, it looks like something in the social environment is seriously broken.

    • dukk@programming.dev
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      6 months ago

      I mean, it will be. The AI friend is always available, always knows what to say, never fights with you, and never messes up (ideally).

      However, all those things are part of the human element: and at the end, you’re still talking to a computer. The AIs are just trying to please you. A person can actually love you, and that’s something else. And I’d take that over the perfect chatbot any day.

  • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    If all you want is attention and you’re not willing to reciprocate, then yeah, maybe computer is your best hope.

    • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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      6 months ago

      Maybe it’s more like not able rather than not willing. As someone in a happy relationship that can’t imagine my life without it, relationships are hard, and modern life is hard.

      I mean, may they be happy. If they are not ready or able to commit to a relationship, but they need comfort in our increasingly lonely world, this may be a band-aid. A good solution would be to find out why people are lonely in the first place, and address it.

      • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        Is it loneliness or is it selfishness? They could get conversation online. This is a specific kind of “all about you” experience.

        I’m not really arguing against it. If a person is happier having those emotions generated by a computer, good for them.

        It’s kind of like porn, or a romance novel. Sometimes fiction is better than reality.

        • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          This was literally a joke in 30 Rock: Pay per view “porn for women” where it was literally just a hot guy saying into the camera “Tell me how your day was”, “I think you were right”, and “Well it’s his loss”