Artificial intelligence is not a problematic tool. It is the use that a person gives it that can generate a negative consequence or impact on society. A recent scientific study promoted by a social organization in Australia finds an alarming increase in people seeking machine learning mechanisms as romantic partners.
This alert is triggered, not because a person wants to interact with an artificial intelligence, but because most of them are heterosexual men displaying dominant and controlling behavior towards their “robot” partner which they could then execute on a real woman.
“Creating a perfect partner that you control and meets all your needs is truly scary. Since we already know that the drivers of gender-based violence record those long-held cultural beliefs that men can control women, that’s really problematic,” said Tara Hunter, acting executive director of domestic violence advocacy group Full Stop. Australia.
This increase in people interacting with artificial intelligence was detected, among other systems, in Replika, a conversational AI chatbot designed to be a companion.
It is trained on a large amount of text data and is capable of holding conversations with users on a variety of topics. Replika can be used for a variety of purposes, including companionship, emotional support, and learning. Before starting a conversation, people can choose whether to chat with a man or a woman.
According to a site report Futurism, on Reddit there is a community of this app in which the chats with this system are published. In some cases they are parodic and funny. But there are many where people marry the character created by the chatbot.
Belinda Barnet, a professor of media at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia spoke to The Guardian and warned of some of the dangers of these behaviors that are rampant on the internet.
“It is completely unknown what the effects are. With respect to relationship applications and AI, you can see that it fits a very deep social need, but I think we need more regulation, particularly on how these systems are trained,” explained the professor.