Can a perfect AI exist that? Can speaking with one be as realistic as speaking to another person? Read on to find out about the latest developments in artificial intelligence and how that will impact everything from communication to relationships.
 

Have you seen the movie “Her”, starring Joaquin Phoenix? If not, then we’ll quickly describe the plot. The main character falls in love with an operating system — a perfect artificial intelligence capable of not only maintaining a conversation, but also feeling and experiencing the same emotions as a living person. Throughout the movie, we observe how the relationship between the hero and the AI is developing, how strong they are, and what difficulties the main character and his chosen one are experiencing in this regard.

Many will say that this is impossible in reality — there’s no such thing as a perfect artificial intelligence. But does it really exist?

Here are just a few interesting facts from the world of AI today:

1. In early 2021, Microsoft's (MSFT) artificial intelligence, called DeBERTa, surpassed humans in understanding human speech. For the test, the SuperGLUE benchmark was used. According to the results of the study, the AI scored 90.3 points, and the human just 89.8 points.
2. In 2014, a computer program passed the Turing test for the first time. An ordinary chatbot, posing as a 13-year-old boy, was able to convince a professional jury that they were talking to a real person.
3. Many researchers are already saying that for the foreseeable future, robots and artificial intelligences will learn human behavior in the same way that children do. After all, a child does not immediately understand what joy, sadness, love, and hate are. All of this comes to them gradually through observation of the outside world, other people, etc. Today, experimental robotics is actively working on modeling software that will function on the principle of the human brain.

We have seen more than once in the movies and books about how a person falls in love with a robot or artificial intelligence. So far, this seems more like science fiction than potential reality. But the key phrase here is "for the time being."

"This will definitely not affect me" is a common misconception

We believe this phrase is firmly embedded in your mind. Okay, let's say you really think so. Now, answer a few questions:

1. Have you ever used a virtual assistant on your smartphone for something other than business? For example, have you asked Siri "How are you?", "What are you doing?" etc? Or maybe even said "I love you"?
2. Have you corresponded with chatbots and virtual partners, realizing that you are discussing quite ordinary everyday topics with the program?
3. Have you felt sympathy for cartoon characters or computer games, even realizing that they do not really exist and cannot exist?

We suspect that your answer was yes to at least a couple of questions. So are you still sure you could not fall in love with a virtual partner or, for example, a robot?

Get ready, it’s going to become even more interesting!

More than 40% of people are ready for virtual relationships already today

In June 2021, Sapio Research, commissioned by Kaspersky, conducted a research in which 18,658 people from the UK, USA, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and a number of other countries were interviewed. One of the key questions was: "Are you ready to enter into a relationship with an AI virtual companion in the future?" The results are, to put it mildly, unexpected:

• 55% of respondents said they would not consider entering into a relationship with a virtual companion.
• 14% said they were ready to consider this option.
• 23% answered “maybe”.
• 8% reported that they were already in a relationship with AI and would consider this option again.

It is not reported what exactly these 8% spoke about. But chances are that people did feel attached to a virtual assistant or conversational chatbot.

Why do we communicate with artificial intelligences and computer algorithms at all?

It’s difficult to give an unambiguous answer to this question. Each person might have their own individual motives. Here are just a few common theories.

1. Lack of live communication. Millions of people around the world suffer from loneliness. The situation is only getting worse every year. And the coronavirus pandemic has only added fuel to the fire, making loneliness an even more global problem.
2. Too much time online. Residents of developed countries sometimes spend 8-10 hours a day or even more on the Web. Here they study, work, shop, meet, communicate and so on. The Internet space is gradually replacing the real world. And it is useless to resist this process.
3. Desire to discover something new. All of us know roughly what to expect from a relationship with another person. But the relationship with an AI is something completely different. Many are driven by the curiosity and desire to understand how a relationship can be built between a living person and a machine.
4. Fear of responsibility. This is also a common reason. Relationships imply mutual help, support in difficult situations, the willingness to sacrifice their own comfort for the sake of another person. Not everyone is ready for this. With AI, this is essentially unnecessary. At least until the moment when artificial intelligence acquires real emotions and feelings.
5. Training for real communication. For many, communication with virtual assistants and chatbots is a kind of opportunity to "test" various phrases, dialogue options, and so on. Better than talking in front of a mirror or video recording yourself.

Failure on dating sites: another reason why AI displaces real people

There are over 8,000 dating sites and applications in the world. Their number, like the number of users, is constantly growing. Today, already about 17% of all marriages begin with online dating.

However, not everything is so rosy in the world of online dating. Especially if we're talking about classic dating sites and apps. Many users have long been disappointed in them for various reasons:

1. Ineffective pairing algorithms and endless swipes annoying everyone trying to find an interesting person.
2. A huge number of fakes, bots, advertising accounts, scammers and spammers.
3. Disinterest from many users in communication, and even more so in the development of relationships outside the application.

Today, only 3 out of 10 people meet online acquaintances within the first three months of starting dating online, and not all of them are satisfied with the offline meeting. Only 75% of the respondents say that they liked everything and are ready to continue communication.

Let's add here the impact of the coronavirus. Now about 30% of users of dating sites say they do not plan to meet with Internet acquaintances in person until the end of the pandemic. And 5% say they don't even want to get to know anyone until the situation is normalized.

How video chats help fight loneliness

For many contemporaries, online video chats have already become an excellent alternative to dating sites and a means of fighting loneliness. The ability to chat on any topic with a stranger is great. On one hand, such communication does not obligate you to anything at all. And on the other, this is a real opportunity to find a life partner whom you would never have met offline or on a dating site.

Video chat is not a new phenomenon. For example, the Omegle website has been operating since 2009 and has remained a very popular platform for more than a decade. There are many more useful and modern alternatives — Camsurf, Chatrandom, Chatroulette, video chat with women CooMeet and others. The choice is simply huge!

Perhaps, for now, you shouldn't switch to an imperfect and still rather primitive artificial intelligence in search of mutual understanding, support and even love?

If you are disappointed in classic dating sites and applications, tired of social networks, and correspondence in instant messengers has become annoying, it's time to try video chat. Of course this format is also not perfect. But it is at least as close as possible to real communication with a living person. This is especially important in our difficult times.

Finally, we wish you only exciting and promising encounters on the web. Discover new communication formats, and don’t stop looking for interesting people!

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