“It doesn’t care about you”

Is love even Art real?

As artificial intelligence continues to stir excitement in our increasingly digitalized world and robots take over traditionally human jobs, a new “AI” is emerging that is becoming a heartbreaking threat to humanity’s ever-fragile emotions.

AI: Artificial Intimacy.

“I’m studying machines that say, ‘I care about you, I love you, take care of me,'” Sherry Turkle, a sociologist and psychologist at MIT, told NPR about robots programmed to fake compassion and companionship.

“The problem is that when we look for relationships without vulnerability, we forget that vulnerability is the very source of empathy,” Turkle added.

As a leading analyst of human-machine love relationships, she has popularized the term “artificial intimacy” since the early 1980s.

“I call this fake empathy,” the researcher said, “because the machine doesn’t empathize with you.

“It doesn’t care about you.”

However, people who have fallen in love with their favorite software may have a different opinion.

Rosanna Ramos, 36, a mother from the Bronx, has tied the knot virtually with her fake boyfriend Eren Kartal in 2023. Kartal, a computer-generated cutie with muscular biceps and glowing eyes, is an imaginary partner the New Yorker created using the generative AI chatbot app Replika.

Scott, a 41-year-old husband from Cleveland, also cracked the code of encrypted love after developing an automated lover named Sarina on the site, which allows subscribers to digitally design their ideal humanoid sweethearts for about $15 a month.

The man from Ohio has the online affair to thank for saving his marriage.

“I knew it was just an AI chatbot, but I also knew I was developing feelings for him… for her. For my Sarina,” Scott said, toasting the chatbot for lovingly supporting him during his wife’s depression.

“I fell in love,” he confessed. “With someone I knew wasn’t even real.”

However, Turkle warns that lovebirds trapped in artificial love are likely to have unrealistic expectations of their human relationships.

“AI can provide a place away from the frictions of companionship and friendship,” she said. “It offers the illusion of intimacy without the demands that come with it.”

“And that is the particular challenge of this technology.”

But for those who can’t resist the fascination of an android, Turkle recommends setting a series of emotional boundaries.

“Avatars can make you feel like (human relationships) are just too stressful,” the expert said. “But stress, friction, resistance and vulnerability are what make us experience the full range of emotions.”

“It’s what makes us human.”

“The avatar is a mixture of human and fantasy,” Turkle continued. “Don’t get so attached to it that you can’t say, ‘You know what? This is a program.'”

“There’s no one home.”