By Atanu Biswas

A new form of Magic Mirror—an interactive AI chatbot—is sweeping today’s world. Like crypto, the metaverse, and NFTs before it, AI is the talking point these days. Especially, the generative AIs are breaching the barriers. Just days after US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stated in early May that loneliness is a “profound public health challenge” that “we should talk about,” 23-year-old American social media influencer Caryn Marjorie launched CarynAI, an AI-powered, voice-based chatbot that she hopes will “cure loneliness” for her fans and that leverages GPT-4 API technology. Users will be able to communicate with the hyper-realistic chatbot, which is designed to blur the divide between fiction and reality. The cost of interacting with such a modern Magic Mirror, which simulates a chat with the influencer herself, is $1 per minute. And she expected to make a staggering $5 million each month.

With the manifestation of generative AIs in different directions, wasn’t this inevitable? For the time being, it appears to be a successful enterprise too. Nowadays, loneliness is viewed as the latest epidemic. Can AI actually aid in the fight against the epidemic? Like this? Should our society be scared or jubilant?

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CarynAI is like an “intimacy-ready Siri,” according to Fortune reporter Alexandra Sternlicht. It can provide users with helpful information, intellectual stimulation, and emotional support. Conversations with CarynAI can range from discussions of the future to discussing “intimate feelings” and, yes, even having sexual conversations. While realistic AI chatbots that let users converse with replicated versions of Steve Jobs, Kanye West, Donald Trump, and Taylor Swift are already available, CarynAI is a far more advanced tool designed to give consumers a girlfriend-like experience that fans can relate to. Will more celebrities follow suit with their AI versions?

AI-powered companions are nothing new, though. Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, has pointed out in a recent withering critique: “Tinder’s former CEO is raising venture capital for an AI-powered relationship coach called Amorai that will offer advice to young adults struggling with loneliness. She won’t be alone. Call Annie is an “AI friend” you can phone or FaceTime to ask anything you want.” Replika and Character.AI are AI chatbot firms that have attracted fervent userbases. In a similar vein, celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Jeremy Renner have encouraged their followers to interact with them via video games and apps.

Although Ridley Scott’s 1982 movie Blade Runner, which was based on Philip K. Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? explored the romance between AI and humans as Sean Young’s AI Replicant Rachael falls in love with Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard, for many people, CarynAI is actually reminiscent of Spike Jonze’s 2013 movie Her, where Theodore, portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, buys Samantha, an operating system (OS) that is essentially an “AI companion” because he is depressed about getting divorced from his childhood sweetheart Catherine. In the movie, Samantha’s voice is provided by Scarlett Johansson. Samantha has the ability to adapt and evolve, and she becomes just as attached to Theodore as he is to her.

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The film Her is set in Los Angeles in an unspecified future, just a few years from its release. Now, within ten years, that future has arrived. Well, as the loneliness epidemic intensifies, is AI for human companionship the future? With the release of AI clones for virtual relationships, are companionship and romance reaching new heights? Shouldn’t there be a lot of ethical considerations? What level of caution should society exercise when regulating and using these artificial human connections? In Her, director Spike Jonze foresees that such relationships will not only become common but also socially acceptable. Most of the characters around Theodore eagerly legitimise the bond between him and Samantha. But the broader question is that if digital relationships with AI chatbots become the norm, how people interact with one another in real life may also change in the long run. Interestingly, when Samantha disclosed that she was in love with 641 of the 8,316 people she interacted with, it hurt Theodore!

Well, can a human really love a machine? American author Kurt Vonnegut attempted to answer this modern-day dilemma as early as 1950. Vonnegut’s story, EPICAC, was clearly inspired by ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, and the story was written within five years of ENIAC going online. The seven-ton, $776,434,927.54 machine EPICAC believes he has fallen in love with Pat Kilgallen, a mathematician with whom he shares a night shift. After Pat decided to marry the narrator of the story, EPICAC got perplexed. EPICAC is smarter than humans and writes better poetry than humans do, so why would Pat choose to wed the narrator instead of him? The confusion would continue.

In a 2020 paper in the journal Film and Philosophy, Jan Maximilan Robitzsch of the University of Tennessee observed three criteria for dismissing a relationship between a human being and an (AI-powered) OS: an OS doesn’t have a body; an OS has superior intelligence; and a relationship with an OS is, in a significant way, not “real” or “genuine.” Her, the movie, however, ultimately leaves open whether any of these criteria are decisive. And it is unclear whether Theodore and Samantha have had a “real” relationship.

In Her, Samantha ended up leaving Theodore for an unexplained reason. Theodore later on goes with his friend Amy and watches the sunrise over the city with her from the apartment’s roof. Ultimately, is that the enduring basis of interpersonal relationships, solidarity, and a possible human-style remedy for loneliness? Can a machine intrude into this framework? Really?

The writer is Professor of statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata