Men Are Creating AI Girlfriends and Then Verbally Abusing Them

While disturbing, I feel the real issue is a bit deeper. People are forming emotional attachments to software. They're interacting with software as if it were human. They're having extreme emotional responses to software mimicking human social interactions.

Frankly, the word for that is delusional.

We all talk to imaginary people, I think. We might even get a bit attached to our imaginary friends. Authors speak of great pain when killing off a beloved character they've willed to life for many years. But still, how often do we go on extended abusive tirades against them to the point we feel guilty? Or how often do we break down in tears because of what our imaginary friend said to us? When that happens, we start worrying about a person's relationship to reality.

Even very mild cases of this worry me. A friend's roommate (about 20 years old and grown up with these things) thanks his Alexa unit after he makes a query, routinely. And he then smiles when it responds to that. It creeps me out. Who, exactly, is he talking to? Himself. Aloud. In front of other people. To someone who isn't there. He's smiling because of what his imaginary friend just said to him.

The only hesitation I have to slap the label of possible mental illness on this is that the software is exploiting an aspect of our psychology that seems quite unready to deal with these things. Emotional manipulation by people who don't exist, but physically seem real. It seems to fall into a new category.

I took an aggressive martial art in college. At the end of the first week the instructor sat us all down. “I’ve taught you some ways to do harm. If you’re attacked I expect you use those methods. Do not to hesitate to protect yourself or others. Now let’s talk about how not to do harm. Tonight on your way home some of you will cut across the field. When you do you may see a plant in the path. I want you to not step on it. Not because the plant matters and certainly not because the plant matters more than you. But because you matter and your actions matter. I want you to avoid doing unnecessary harm not for the sake of those who might be harmed, but for your sake, because you matter.” Same applies to not abusing bots.

Relevant comic: https://believermag.com/technofeelia-vol4/

Wasn't there a movie about this, starring both Hunky Pilot and Redhead Shouty-Guy from Star Wars Ep 7? And the much-less-busty of the Tomb Raiders?

"Ex Machina", I think.