<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 09/04/2025 00:22, BillK wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.10.1744154544.18423.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">
<pre>In an interview with podcast host Lex Fridman, Eugenia Kuyda, the CEO
of the companion site Replika, explained the appeal at the heart of
the company’s product. “If you create something that is always there
for you, that never criticizes you, that always understands you and
understands you for who you are,” she said, “how can you not fall in
love with that?”</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
That's an easy one to answer:<br>
"Because I'm not a baby anymore".<br>
Surely one of the things you realise as you grow up is that people
are not always there for you, so you can learn self-reliance (and
it's corollary, self-esteem).<br>
<br>
As for understanding you, nobody does, even other humans, much less
these things. Just another thing that we learn that's part of
growing up. Admittedly, that does cause a lot of problems, but I
can't see chatbots helping to solve them, when they just reinforce
each person's own views.<br>
<br>
And we know what happens to people who are shielded from criticism.
These days, we call them 'university students', or 'woke
snowflakes'.<br>
<br>
If people are really thinking like this, then they are deluding
themselves, big-time, and I can't see any good coming from it. It
seems to be a recipe for infantilising the human race. Maybe when
real AI does appear, we will have no problem being their pets,
because the chatbots will have already groomed us.<br>
<br>
Finally, she has a rather twisted view of love, in my opinion.<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ben</pre>
</body>
</html>