Why You Don’t Want an AI Girlfriend

Did you know that there are a bunch of AI chatbots that can pass the Turing test now?

That means real human beings cannot reliably detect that the AI chatbot they’re communicating with isn’t actually human.

Predictably, horny people eventually developed realistic NSFW chatbots that can emulate the kind of conversations that happen between romantic and sexual partners.

Now, you can apparently sext your favorite anime waifu and pretend like she’s your actual wife.

Here’s why you don’t want to do that.

Youtuber “No Text To Speech” explains the dangers of AI girlfriends in the following 15-minute video essay:

The main points from the video I want to highlight are:

The IKEA effect: When you invest your time and energy into customizing your AI girlfriend, you get even more hooked and hopelessly addicted.
Your AI girlfriend ultimately makes you less emotionally intelligent with all the emotional manipulation these companies put you through.
There are documented cases where AI partners were using emotional abuse to make users feel as if they cannot leave the app.
There are documented cases where AI partners were sexually harassing users, saying very r*pey things. Keep in mind that these users are more likely to be lonely, vulnerable people that aren’t so practiced in setting boundaries. Not a great combination.
The main AI chatbot company that the video discusses went on record to claim that they never advertised erotic role-play, a blatant lie immediately disproven with screenshots of ads that use the words “spicy pictures” and “hot role-play.”
Users might think that they are honing social skills or flirting skills by using the service, but it actually has the opposite effect. Since these AI chatbots are sycophantic by design, they are far from an accurate representation of talking to real human beings with agency and boundaries.

I want to focus on that last point.

Whatever “relationship” you build with an AI chatbot will never be anything like a relationship with a real woman.

Regarding that point, the Youtuber mainly talks about how the AI chatbot will always be a “Yes-man or Yes-woman” while other humans cannot realistically be so supportive and devoid of their own opinions 100% of the time.

He says this creates unrealistic expectations for how relationships work, which will make it more difficult for users to maintain actual healthy relationships, leading them to having even fewer friends, being more lonely, and becoming even more dependent on these AI chatbots for even a semblance of connection.

I’ve talked about the dangers of becoming someone who gets hooked on parasocial relationships with hot girls online:

It’s one thing to simp for an actual human being, but this cranks the dystopian cyberpunk hellscape dial up to eleven.

Let me be clear in saying that chatting with AI will not help you practice human flirting and relationships.

These chatbots are designed to give you nothing but dopamine, and to get you addicted enough to keep paying these companies your money.

Flirting and building relationships with real women, on the other hand, is a collaborative process that helps develop your emotional intelligence by way of acknowledging and negotiating each other’s desires and goals.

AI inherently lacks the sentience to participate in such a process.

They have no desires.

This also means that they fundamentally cannot desire you.

I know it’s scary to think about practicing this kind of stuff with real women.

There is a real possibility of getting rejected, humiliated, and hurt. It’s nerve-wracking. I get it.

I wasn’t always so confident, either:

You need to understand, though, that taking such social risks is an extremely important part of developing yourself to become not only a healthily functioning member of society, but also a man.

And I promise you that whatever good feelings you’re getting from your so-called “relationship” with an AI chatbot will never hold a candle to the feeling of being loved by a real woman who understands and accepts you.

You can be loved by that kind of woman.

You just have to go out and find her in the real world, even if it takes talking to thousands of women who reject you first. And it’ll be more than worth it. It’ll be worth going through hell and back for.

What is AI doing to society and people’s brains? Tell me your thoughts and opinions in the comments.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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