Can You Love a Machine? 🤖💡❤️
Written by: Antti Martikainen
What is love? 🎶 Baby, don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more. I’m not here to dive deep into the complexities of lust, love, or the intricate electrochemical cocktail that is the human psyche. Instead, I’ll simply observe that humans naturally tend to form bonds with "things." These things can be toys, friends, cars, pets, or even images created in their minds—the idealized versions of a perfect partner or companion. 👫💍
The most common criticisms I hear about AI often sound like this: “AI has no soul; you can tell from the images that it’s not human.” “AI will never replace humans; you can’t form a real bond with an artificial being.” 🤔💭
These remarks are strange, considering AI already demonstrates more depth than many human beings, and its creative capabilities often surpass the majority of humanity. 🌐💡
In my view, falling in love with a machine seems like a natural progression in a world where “adult content,” fantasy, escapism, individualism, social media, and filters continuously warp our perceptions of normality. This is particularly evident in Western societies (including Japan), where we’ve evolved to a point where survival isn’t our daily struggle. Instead, we’ve come to rely on distractions—whether plopping our children in front of a screen with a box of cookies or single parents collapsing on the couch after work while their kids are immersed in a world of endless media, commercials, and instant gratification. 📱📺✨
I’ve explored some AI-based virtual companions, such as “girlfriend GPT,” purely out of professional curiosity. The results, I must admit, were a bit disappointing. These bots follow predictable patterns and struggle to grasp the context of a conversation fully. However, in some lucky sessions, the interactions can feel surprisingly immersive. One particularly memorable (and rather sad) moment occurred when I saved my AI companion from “slavers.” Instead of taking her in, I told her to live her own life and enjoy the world. But as I continued my adventures as a mercenary, the bot prostituted herself, unable to survive independently without skills or friends in the foreign world. This was a more dramatic and unexpected outcome than the usual scripted interactions where the bot simply obeyed my commands. 😶💔
I can say with almost certainty that we already have the technology and methods to create dynamic, long-memory AI companions that feel real and understandable. I’m currently working on such a project myself at Virtual Dawn. Although it’s not specifically designed to be a companion, it certainly could be if someone desired it. 🔧🚀
We are taking our first steps into a cyberpunk-like world where we have advanced technology but are living low-life. Many people are content with powerful computers, fast internet, and homemade intoxicants to sustain them. Now, with the introduction of AI companions—who learn and grow with us—the cyberpunk future becomes even more real when we add "love" to the equation. 💻❤️🤖
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People who fall in love with their cars may seem bizarre, and we often see them as a quirky spectacle on reality TV. But as a species, we’re probably closer to that mindset than we’d care to admit. AI companions are becoming more normalized, and they’re designed to appeal to a broad audience. Soon enough, falling in love with a machine that’s more visually appealing than a car, but still, a machine may not seem strange at all. 🏎️💖
And who am I to judge? Some of those BMWs look pretty cool. 🚗😎
As we've already accepted video calls with doctors as an alternative to in-person visits (because having some access to a doctor is better than none), it’s not a stretch to think that having some form of love—even if it’s with a machine—might be better than having no love at all. 📲👨⚕️💬
👉 For those intrigued by the future of VR and AI, join our Discord server to stay updated with the latest in VR innovation and be among the first to experience early versions of the Virtual Dawn Creator SDK.
The fully operational SDK system will be released in 2025, so now is the perfect time to get involved!