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A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

mazzzystar.github.io

241–250 of 400 posts

Re: A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

#241

> I even repeatedly modified the system prompt, such as changing try to attract {user} So it was a virtual girlfriend app, after all. Cashing-in on loneliness gives me the heebie-jeebies; in a dystopian cyberpunk way - extremely horny but 0% sexy.

Cashing in on loneliness is big business. Singles bars. OKCupid. Half of the self-improvement/self-help world.

Re: A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

#242

> But, does humanity really need an AI friend? This reminds me of the Fredrick Pohl line "A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam." So I wonder what the traffic jam is going to look like given that the car seems to already be parked outside with the engine running. Faster depopulation across the developed world? Probably, but maybe there's something even more impo…

I think the pleasure trip is just porn. We have that already and it's possible to discuss the effects of widespread porn on people.

I think the next step is, what does it mean to have an emotional relationship with someone in your pocket who is for all definitions perfect - can provide perfect advice and does so with judgement, ridicule, pity or anger? What will be my bar for human relationships, those imperfect messy human beings, when I have a partner I can be perfectly vulnerable with? What happens to interpersonal relationships when you are competing with a virtual perfect significant other?

Re: A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

#243

You should not even try to create these sorts of technologies. Take a break from technology, spend time outdoors with plants and animals. These types of technologies will only lead to a worsening of this already sick society.

>spend time outdoors with plants and animals Which animals? Blood ticks?

Bot flies. Or a bunch of those things we've driven extinct because they tried to eat us.

Naturalistic fallacies are common here :/

Re: A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

#244
post #115

> GPT-based products, if not priced per usage, would fall into a dilemma: 1% of users consume 99% of tokens. A user from Sweden (seen from Cloudflare’s call volume) chatted with Dolores for 12 hours straight This, my friend, is a captive customer, that will pay anything to get his girlfriend back. I cringe at the potential of unethical behavior and abuse, where people fall in love with virtual entities fully owned by…

IMHO this is industrialized automated abuse of lonely people and especially those with mental health issues. It's really truly gross. At least Joi in Bladerunner 2024 was a local model the user could apparently download onto their own portable device. She also never presented an upgrade dialog requiring payment.

I don't care if it's abuse, I want it. I want to retreat from the disgusting world and society around me as much as possible and AI friends would just be another option towards that point.

Re: A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

#245
post #169
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO this is industrialized automated abuse of lonely people and especially those with mental health issues. It's really truly gross. At least Joi in Bladerunner 2024 was a local model the user could apparently download onto their own portable device. She also never presented an upgrade dialog requiring payment.

Funny how a fantasy dystopia is in some aspects already less dystopian than the real world, where you already get such notifications.

Pros: it's not raining all the time, pollution isn't as bad, and I don't live in a slum where I have to step over half-dead drug addicts just to get to my apartment.

Cons: the e-waifus are much more manipulative and exploitative.

Re: A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can already see this with Replika when they took away many... roleplay... capabilities that originally came with the AI. The communities on Reddit and Facebook were absolutely devastated. People were genuinely attached to these AI's like a real relationship, and were feeling the resultant heartbreak. The kind of emotional manipulation which can be done with these products is insane, and I can see things going very…

It's particularly terrifying when you think about how Facebook and others probably already have projects in the works to befriend children with AI. little kids who don't know the difference will become Weaponized with constant nudges towards whatever motives grant the corporate owners more power. The ability to persuade children is near infinite and we can observe in those who've grown up in cults/strict religious co…

There’s no way to separate them. Education is influencing someone towards things that we believe are true. If an educational AI believes that propaganda is true, then education and propaganda are the same thing.

Re: A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

#247
post #181

At this point in the hype cycle, I am completely unimpressed by everyone slapping something on top of GPT and calling it a product. There are at least 4 projects on the front page that do this today. The interesting technology is GPT itself, but these projects just feels like people trying to scoop up attention for themselves using the psychology of the hype cycle. Please HN, enlighten me on why the middle-man approa…

GPT wrappers will come and go. It's the new hype, just as shitcoins were a few years ago. Don't hate the players, hate the game.

[deleted]

Re: A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can already see this with Replika when they took away many... roleplay... capabilities that originally came with the AI. The communities on Reddit and Facebook were absolutely devastated. People were genuinely attached to these AI's like a real relationship, and were feeling the resultant heartbreak. The kind of emotional manipulation which can be done with these products is insane, and I can see things going very…

It's particularly terrifying when you think about how Facebook and others probably already have projects in the works to befriend children with AI. little kids who don't know the difference will become Weaponized with constant nudges towards whatever motives grant the corporate owners more power. The ability to persuade children is near infinite and we can observe in those who've grown up in cults/strict religious co…

> The thing is, how do we outlaw this without also preventing children from using AI to learn at a faster rate than their teachers can give them.

Can you teach me, an adult, to do that?

Re: A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rookiest cop can: 1. track you with license plate readers 2. pull up any information about you 3. fine you 4. force you to stop 5. detain you 6. confiscate your car and property 7. search you and your property 8. take your phone and search it Bill Gates can: 1. give you a free browser when you buy his operating system

I suspect the issue here is that most of HN folks live in western countries with mostly working democracies. For the most part we haven’t experienced how bad governments can get. Whether or not western style democracies are immune to going really bad, remains to be seen. Some days I’m optimistic, some days not so much.

I've lived in dictatorships and non-functional democracies, in spite of that corporations have done me far more harm than those states ever did. I do realize they have that power and I do realize it gets abused and regularly so. But the fact is that people get abused by corporations all the time and by their governments less frequently if ever. But when they are abused the consequences are likely much worse.

Re: A failed AI girlfriend product, and my lessons

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. But the rookiest cop isn't currently trying to track my whereabouts, abuse my privacy, stick a bunch of AI down my throat and in general isn't trying to make my wallet any thinner. Bill Gates and the more modern versions of Bill Gates are doing that and more.

The rookiest cop can: 1. track you with license plate readers 2. pull up any information about you 3. fine you 4. force you to stop 5. detain you 6. confiscate your car and property 7. search you and your property 8. take your phone and search it Bill Gates can: 1. give you a free browser when you buy his operating system

Bill gates (when he was actually in control of the company) can, and did, sic the governmental apparatus on people. IE, large enough corporations, that are entwined enough in your life, are empowered to use exactly the government "rookie cops" you are afraid of.

Or do you forget the raids against music and movie pirates?

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