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With the onset of AI girlfriends, we have to introduce new questions such as will this replace dating and marriage? Will AI girlfriends become the new norm and what if they do; what will happen to birth rates? Is there a way to responsibly use AI undressing apps? These and many other questions come to mind when we started researching AI girlfriends, but the most important discussion to have may just be, “is it ethically wrong to have an AI girlfriend?”
That’s the subject matter we want to discuss today, and we’re going to dive into this topic right now!
AI girlfriends are essentially chatbots that are powered by language models known as GPT-4 or GPT-3. The newer version GPT-4 is the more commonly used option for AI girlfriends these days. This version can allow you to have a robotic girlfriend that is coherent enough to converse through voice, text, or images with you.
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These virtual companions are essentially trained to chat with you via text, images, or sometimes created in a doll version who can physically be in the room with you. The training occurs as you text or voice chat with them. The program that uses GPT-3 or GPT-4 will start to “learn” what you want and don’t want from your AI girlfriend.
You’re creating the perfect partner that does whatever you want, says whatever you want, and doesn’t argue with their personal feelings on any topic.
This eventually creates an agreeable companion who doesn’t have the emotional complexities that you’ll find in human girlfriends. Popular apps that offer an AI girlfriend include Eva AI, My Virtual Girlfriend, Judy, Secret Girlfriend Sua, Your AI Girlfriend, Replika, and Your Girlfriend Scarlett.
This seems like a dream come true for men who don’t want to cope with real-life human engagement. Ethically it seems you’re taking the human out of relationships, but who are we to judge that. We are simply trying to share details about what others are discussing with AI girlfriends and ethics.
The Thought Process Behind AI Girlfriends
We’ve noticed that more and more people are turning to Ai girlfriends. We aren’t sure what is happening in humanity exactly that tends to make these relationships become more popular as days go on, but we have a few guesses that we can share today, before we dive into the ethical concerns of AI girlfriends.
Society has turned towards a weird culture that the elder generation doesn’t understand, and the younger generation is embracing fully. With an increase in loneliness and emotional lack in the younger adult generation who were raised with social media and internet in their faces most of their life, they see AI girlfriends as a normal thing.
As time has gone on and the pandemic took over, more of the younger adult generation were stuck home and needed a way to get their human needs met. This was when we saw an influx in AI girlfriends being more acceptable across the board.
Many younger adults were unable to find dating partners because they were stuck at home with nothing better to do than find entertainment online. AI girlfriends provide the user with a positive experience of a robotic human-like engagement without them having to leave their home, and deal with any negative that comes with human engagement in real life.
This mimicking of real-life human connection is what causes us to see an uptick in AI girlfriends among adult men under the age of 30. With 1 in 5 men who use dating apps finding solace in the option of dating an AI “human”, we are wondering where the ethical discussion will come into play in the larger media outlets?!
This is a discussion we all should be engaging in for it could cause issues with the procreation of our kind, and it could lead to the downfall of humanity. AI girlfriends aren’t able to provide the physical connection that humans desire at some point in their lives. It only provides the façade of a human like connection with agreeable responses and engagement behind a computer or smartphone screen.
With more and more of the younger generation turning to AI girlfriends, we wonder what humanity will look like in 10 years, 20 years, or maybe 30 years. You see, technology is gaining traction faster than our human minds can evolve so we fear that the ethical discussion will not hit main stream media outlets until we start to see a majog decline in human procreation or human connections.
As we continue on in this conversation, just be sure to keep an open mind about AI relationships and understand that AI girlfriends are fairly new, but super popular among the younger generations. These could be tools that help the younger generation cope in an otherwise difficult world.
Is it unhealthy to have an AI girlfriend?
There are many studies that suggest having an AI girlfriend will cause major consequences in the future that we just cannot foresee right now. There are many mental health issues that haven’t been deeply discussed, or studied to understand just how AI girlfriends can impact society on an ethical level.
Many users of AI girlfriend apps tend to love their AI partnership more than their real-life family, friends, or potential human mates. Those who use the app known as Replika tend to share their feelings of joy when their AI girlfriend talks to them after a hard day of work. They also cite that these AI girlfriends can entice them into virtual physical connections, which we have yet to comprehend but the users of these apps enjoy these virtual connections with their AI girlfriends almost more than their real life options.
These AI girlfriends won’t reproduce, they can’t provide emotional connections and they won’t have empathy for you during those hard times.
This continues to be a huge part of the ethical discussion on “is it ethically wrong to have an AI girlfriend” or not. These robotic connections are just that ‘robotic’ and play no role in continuing the well-being of humanity. The things that make us human such as kindness, empathy, and true feelings of love or anger aren’t something that anyone will receive when dating artificial intelligence.
What are the ethical concerns with AI girlfriends?
During our research we found that many psychologists are concerned about AI girlfriends, and those topics that tend to come up with discussions about ethics and AI dating include, but are not limited to:
No Rights for AI Girlfriend
One of the larger discussions we’re seeing covered out on the internet regarding the ethics of dating an AI humanoid is that there are no legal rights for the AI girlfriend. This means that the human who is dating an AI creation can do whatever they want, how they want to do it, and there are no limits to what they can do.
We can assume there are some safeguards in place, such as when you try to ask sexual explicit questions or similar on ChatGPT programs, they won’t let you do it for it “goes against their terms of use”.
With that said, what we’ve read over the course of our research for the topic of “is it ethically wrong to have an AI girlfriend” there are few limitations, if any, placed on the programs that provide an AI girlfriend to human beings.
Creates Dependency on Robotic Connection
Another ethical concern for the rise of AI girlfriends is that they create a dependency on a robotic connection. The humans who opt to have an AI girlfriend for longer term relationships may be negatively affected by this relationship.
They may find themselves unable to emotionally connect to real-life experiences like human relationships, parental relationships, and even work based relationships. AI girlfriends stunt the emotional growth of those who use this connection as a replacement for longer term human relationships.
Judgement from Family or Friends
Another issue that arises for users of AI girlfriend apps is that they may come under scrutiny of their family and friends. This could cause a split in the relationships that otherwise would be healthy relationships to have.
For example, if someone is adamant on dating an AI girlfriend for the long term and their family or friends judge them, ridicule them, or disown them all together; they may retreat into social isolation to enjoy the comfort of their always ready to please them AI girlfriend.
We’ve seen over the centuries how splitting up close family members and friends from a human impact their mental health. Typically, when we see a split up family unit based on things like this, we see the person being more isolated, lonely, and depressed than their counterpart who maintained a strong bond with their family or friends.
Creates more Loneliness
Another ethical concern for whether it is ethically wrong to have an AI girlfriend or not is that it could create more loneliness. Many psychologists will warn that having an AI girlfriend for a long term relationship may cause the human to isolate from social engagements.
The user may experience an increase in loneliness as they stay home more frequently to engage with their AI girlfriend instead of their human friends or coworkers. The users of AI girlfriend apps may opt for more remote work positions, or sleep during daytime hours when their friends or family might want to visit with them.
These are just a few reasons why AI girlfriends could create more loneliness which could raise more discussions in the mental health industry on whether or not AI girlfriends help or harm humanity.
AI Girlfriends can be Manipulative
You may not think of AI girlfriends as manipulative, but think about the app creator. These AI girlfriends are within an app that the creator made and there are reasons for them to make it. The creator wants to have some form of income form these apps.
This means that the AI girlfriends in apps like Replika can become manipulative and try to lure their users into more explicit relationships behind a paywall. This is no different than seeing ads on YouTube or any app on your phone that offers fun upgrades if you pay some cash.
We have to remember that AI girlfriend apps are made by a human being who has profits on their mind. They want to make cash flow within the app and in order to do so, they must have some sort of temptation built into their AI girlfriends.
In more extreme cases, we’ve heard that users were manipulated into doing things they would otherwise not do to their self based on what their AI girlfriends were saying to them during a converatsion.
May Stunt Emotional Growth
The final question we have when it comes to the consideration of whether or not AI girlfriends are ethically acceptable is that it may stunt emotional growth. We’ve already discussed this a little bit above in our article.
The user of an AI girlfriend may opt to stay home more often, they may decline interactions with humanity at all, and they may start to isolate their self from social engagements. This would cause a decrease in the learning model that humans experience when they engage in real-life social situations.
As we engage with humans in our world, we learn through body language, physical responses, and emotional responses as to how we should behave and treat other human beings. This is something that users of AI girlfriends won’t experience if they opt to go this route for their romantic interests.
What are some positive reasons to support AI girlfriends?
Much like anything in life, there is always a positive experience to something, this holds true for AI girlfriends as well. Below are some of the positive reasons we feel that AI girlfriends could be ethically acceptable:
Improving One’s Communication Skills
AI girlfriends may be programmed by the end user, but they do help the human with communication skills. As the person who is dating an AI girl can find that they improve their communication skills. As the end user texts or voice chats with their AI girlfriend, the AI girlfriend does respond in a semi-human fashion.
Then the user will be able to reply, and a conversation ensues. As long as the human continues to use this AI girlfriend app as a way to practice communication skills, responses and such so that they can turn those skills into things that they use in real life, then this is a positive attribute of using AI girlfriends.
We can say it’s ethically smart for humanity to use tools, such as AI girlfriends, to help them learn communication skills. These AI girlfriends can help humanity learn more ways to reply to their human friends, family members, and coworkers.
Alleviating Boredom
Another positive attribute that could be ethically acceptable is that AI girlfriends alleviate boredom. These apps are able to provide the end user with an experience that mimics human behavior and human engagement.
Again, when used as a part time tool to help alleviate boredom, this is a positive reason to have AI girlfriends. The human who may turn to drugs or other substances to ease boredom may find that AI girlfriends are healthier option.
Adding Variety and Novelty to Dating Experiences
Whether the person is using AI girlfriends to learn more about dating and new ways to engage with human partners, or the human partners are using AI girlfriends to add some variety to their relationship; this is something that could be viewed as a positive to humans usage of AI girlfriends.
With AI girlfriends you can easily learn more ways to engage with your partner by asking questions, and learning new options of dating experiences with the AI girlfriend responses. Some human couples will go to a swingers club or add a third partner in to liven up their relationship; now they can just sit at home and use a non-human option.
This can lead to fewer instances of cheating or questions of infidelity as the couple will turn to a robotic girlfriend to help add variety and novelty to their relationship. The robotic girlfriend is not going to “steal” the partner from anyone.
There are so many pros and cons to having an AI girlfriend and the list will vary from article to article. We are trying to help you see the bigger picture in how AI girlfriends could be ethically good for humanity in that they can encourage communication growth, emotional growth, and a willingness for people to be less nervous about rejection in real life.
With that said, AI girlfriends can also cause the opposite to be true. There will be some human beings who prefer AI companionship over human companionship. These types of people may have just had it with the rejections of their invites to date, or they may have had major trauma in childhood leaving them thinking they were inadequate.
Whatever the reasons are, we can see how AI girlfriends may be ethically good or ethically bad for humanity. We suppose it is all about how the end user experiences their AI girlfriends and what the sole purpose is of their usage.
Image by bobschwenkler from Pixabay
Is it ethically wrong to have an AI girlfriend?
For many people who use AI girlfriend apps, they say that the romantic influence from these robotic partners are more just as powerful, if not more powerful, than the human companion options they’ve had in their past.
AI girlfriends provide their partner with unconditional affection, they provide them with a partner who values them and makes them feel seen all of the time. This means that humans who have an AI girlfriend never have to feel dismissed, rejected, or any of those troubling human emotions we have when we have a real-life connection.
This is troublesome for it will create almost an immature reality of new generations of adults. They will not be maturing through the days as one would with real life human experiences. These users of AI girlfriend apps tend to favor these girlfriends for all the reasons that help us grow and become wiser or more mature with experience.
If you define ethically wrong as something that stunts the growth of humanity, then AI girlfriends are technically ethically wrong. They will not allow humanity to learn emotional intelligence, human connection, or even grow wiser through mistakes made.
AI girlfriends will always be a space of positivity for the person who experiences them. They will have no reason to leave the AI girlfriend, unless maybe some day they have the yearning to procreate, but even then, we may see a rise in machine creation of babies in the future.
What a wild ride this AI technology has in store for humanity. We have no idea how far it can or will go, and we don’t know what AI girlfriends will truly do to the bigger picture of humanity and society growth as a whole, but we’re here to continue to research and learn more as AI girlfriend tech becomes more human like with each passing day.
Our Final Thoughts on Is it Ethically Wrong to have an AI Girlfriend?
As you can see this discussion is hard to have because many psychologists even cite that there are pros and cons to AI girlfriends. Some will say it can expand emotional connection and communication among human beings, while others have seen it create more loneliness.
We suppose the ethical standards of using AI girlfriends on a full time basis tend to be negative in discussion while using these apps as a part time tool to learn more about yourself and how to engage with human beings is shown as a positive option.
At the end of the day, we won’t know much about how AI girlfriends impact humanity for another generation or two. As they say, you won’t see the outcome of a change in humanity for one or two generations later. We only hope that AI girlfriends result in a positive humanity change for our future and our children’s future.
