Social AI
Do you ever feel like you are in a relationship with your phone and not with your friends, family, and loved ones? Some argue that the introduction of technology in our society has caused us to become less connected to each other and more dependent on apps and notification screens for social interaction and fulfillment. Our growing dependence on technology for interpersonal relationships was explored in Her , the hit film of 2013 (imdb.com/title/tt1798709). The main character, Theodore Twombly, falls in love with Samantha, his phone’s virtual assistant. Set in a near-futuristic Los Angeles, the film documents their strange relationship. It is an interesting commentary on our modern dependence on technology, but the film presents an extreme scenario of a possible future.
Contrary to popular opinion, AI can bring people together instead of pushing them apart. AI helps individuals who lack avenues for traditional human connection, such as homebound seniors or people with mental illnesses. The Care-o-bot in Japan is one of the “emotional support droids” that provides living assistance in addition to companionship for users (“Robot Caregivers Are Savings the Elderly From Lives of Loneliness,” Andrew Tarantola, Aug. 29, 2017; engadget.com/2017/08/29/robot-caregivers-are-saving-the-elderly-from-lives-of-loneliness). Care-o-bot emerged in Japan due to the lack of resources to care for the country’s growing senior population. While nothing can beat a human nurse, this AI technology helps seniors form beneficial relationships and provides helping hands around the house when there are a shortage of human caregivers to fulfill these services.
However, there are people out there who envision a future where you could build and coexist with a “robot partner.” In a recent poll developed by Havas, an international advertising firm located in Paris, 27% of those 18–34 years olds would form a relationship with a droid in the future (“Would you Date a Robot? New Report Says Millennials Would,” Shivali Best, Dec. 9, 2017; nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11956601). As AI and robots become advanced and human-like, it is easy to see how this group of people will be able to accomplish their goals of forming robot–human relationships and recruit others to their lifestyle someday. However, these people are not the general consensus. There are the other 73% of this group who would not consider robot–human relations, and in the other remaining older age groups polled, the number in favor of robot relationships shrinks drastically. While it might be possible for a small group of the population to have robot relationships in the future, the majority of humans still prefer the touch and conversation of a fellow human in their friendships and romantic relationships.
AI Won’t Be the Boss of Us
So was the X-Files AI episode accurate? Will humans one day construct some kind of robot–AI, mix of technology that will become smarter than humans and take over society? It is not impossible, but also not very probable. Even the smartest AI neural networks that took months to construct, like Pepper the droid, are not close to producing reaction times and a learning capacity to compete with the human brain. Humans are also slow to trust responsibilities solely to robots. This technology enhances our lives, but it does not dictate or replace us even at the most advanced levels. We still want flesh-and-blood doctors treating our illnesses and are comforted when interacting with a human sales rep rather than an automated response system during customer service calls.
Even so, AI, robotics, and AI robots are changing the landscape for our jobs, and our way of life. Much of this technol ogy is in the infancy stages of development, but it is never too early to start planning and envisioning a different future than the present. The future is poised to be an unpredictable one, but we can leave the robot takeover to movies, books, and TV shows for now; that storyline in science fiction is a timeless one.
