Academics and intellectuals nationwide are concerned over the rise of people entertaining virtual, artificially intelligent romantic partners, sometimes over their human counterparts.
Rightfully so, dating and marriage are on the decline, and every outlet seems to have dire statistics about the loneliness epidemic facing young adults, projecting even greater dismay for future generations.
As technology advances, it’s becoming more difficult to differentiate human intelligence from artificial intelligence, particularly in the arena of emotional intimacy in romantic partnerships. What’s more, technology has never been shy about progress. It’s only a matter of time before artificial intelligence can closely resemble, and perhaps in some instances even replace, other forms of intimacy beyond the emotional.
Acknowledging what this could mean for present and future generations, along with what this could mean for the future of humanity as a species, applying a critical thinking lens to this dilemma gleans some interesting counterpoints to the overwhelming majority of academics and intellectuals. One such counterpoint is the rise of healthy competition for romantic partners.
Social media is full of young adults complaining about the dating scene. Heated debates about what constitutes “bare minimum,” what it means to be “high value,” height, weight, body count, etc., it seems everyone has expectations for everyone else, and nobody is willing to “settle.”
Enter AI romantic partners. For the first time, an alternative to human emotional intimacy exists. AI romantic partners are there for you when and how you need them. They require minimal investment and offer maximal compatibility. It should be noted, however, that a key part of emotional intimacy comes from some level of investment, along with some lack of compatibility to be forgiven. Emotional intimacy would be difficult to build without investment because there would be no stakes. Similarly, emotional intimacy would be difficult to build without perfect compatibility because there would be nothing to overcome together.
This is where AI romantic partners genuinely shine as the reciprocity concept turns into a dynamic algorithm. Advanced programs get to learn the user, ask for just enough investment, and offer just enough of a lack of compatibility to make the emotional intimacy between humans and algorithms feel real.
This is where the healthy competition emerges. Rather than being hyper-focused on what our prospective romantic partners bring to the table, the existence of AI romantic partners forces us to self-assess and consider what we bring to the table for our romantic partners’ interests.
If we are to pair with a human romantic partner, we must now bring more to the table than our predecessors have because AI romantic partners are now a viable alternative. However, AI romantic partners are also now a viable alternative for us, and thus, we could also choose not to self-assess and self-improve, opting to engage in emotional intimacy with artificial intelligence instead of human intelligence ourselves.
The healthy competition between human and artificial intelligence in emotional intimacy in romantic partnerships can help create a checks and balances system that yields optimal efficiency and effectiveness. If AI romantic partners can be there when and how our prospective romantic partners need them to be, maybe we need to do better. If AI romantic partners have figured out the dynamic algorithm for minimal investment and maximal compatibility, maybe we need to do better. And if someday, AI romantic partners are more “high value” and go above and beyond the “bare minimum,” we need to do better.
Alas, modern-day academics and intellectuals are right to be concerned. The human mind is the toughest component of the human being to replicate, and here we are. Their projections of a self-inflicted extinction of the human species may not be far from reality within a matter of centuries. In the past, humans had a monopoly on romantic partnerships. Today, there is “healthy” competition from artificial intelligence to do better and be better in emotional intimacy.
It won’t be long before this competition bleeds over into other arenas of intimacy, restrained only by the limits of technological progress. The question is, have we opened the Pandora’s box that will destroy us through our greed to become more technologically advanced, even if at the expense of our safety and survival as a species?
