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Build Your Own Girlfriend


Welcome back to to Artifici(Al)ove, today we are going to investigate something that may sound foreign to you, that may also make you feel uncomfortable just by visualizing it. Today we are talking about the up and coming emergence of lifelike AI dolls and the attraction to this phenomenon. 

From the famous tag line of the 1972 science fiction western thriller Westworld, “boy, do we have a vacation for you”, a world to live out your craziest fantasies minus the “human” repercussions is born. The movie takes place in a fantastical world where people can pay to interact in everyday environments with a catch, its run by androids who quiescently look indistinguishable to human beings. As the movie states “for a small payment you can live out your wildest dreams.” Now this may seem far-fetched, but the underlining message of non-human interplay is not far from what we are experiencing today. The mix of AI and human like dolls is allowing the fantastical Westworld fantasy to be brought to life. So, what is fueling the popularity of co-existing with a robotic human especially in terms of intimacy and companionship? 

In San Marcos, California the leader in AI Doll creation in North America is gaining more and more visibility with a company called RealDoll. The owner of RealDoll, Matt McMullen sat down with Vice to better explain his controversial thoughts and ethics behind creating these dolls.

 In the interview Matt describes his customers to Vice, painting the picture of the types of clients he is seeing.

“Some are very lonely and for one reason or another do not have the desire or ability to make real bonds with someone else. Some are victims of circumstance; either something happened to them or someone broke their heart, or they might have lost a loved one to a disease. They don't want, necessarily, to start new relationships. It gives them some level of: "Oh, I have someone at home..."

Matt later goes on to describe his clients as “just very nice people.” The AI integrated in these intimacy dolls is blurring the line of normalcy and creating a perfected reality for some people. A companion who is always there, always compliant and possesses zero conflict is becoming very appealing to some. This technology is erasing risk of failure in relationships that some can’t handle. The dolls can communicate with you, learn from you, and from these interactions spark your ultimate desires. What is not to love, right?

But with the creation of these dolls what does that say about the future of societal interaction? Will people prefer AI Dolls? Will relationships with these dolls become normalized? Can you love a doll? Some may say that AI technology is allowing people to become more social or in this case the complete opposite, antisocial.

When Matt is asked if he imagines our future world as one with people walking around chatting with their AI Doll, his response was “Sure. Absolutely, YES!” His Westworld mindset is something out of the movies, literally, but this may not be so far out of reach. This is very much a trend in many cities in Japan and China where the idea of dating a robot is nothing to think twice about. Now we may not be ready for this just yet in our westernized world, but don’t be alarmed when someone tells you “boy, do we have a vacation for you.”

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/dpkypk/real-doll-artificial-intelligence-sex
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