EP 987 Can AI Be the Answer to Social Isolation?

Google Trends reported a 2,400 percent increase in searches for “AI girlfriends” recently.  Millions of people are currently in what they consider to be serious relationships with AI.  Thousands have engaged in ceremonial weddings with their AI companions and stay as faithful to them as they would a human partner.  Could legal marriage to AI be far off?  To many of us such concepts are unusual to say the least.  However, it’s hard not to see how so many in our society could take their screen addiction to another level as they seek some form of connectedness.  While in sci-fi we have imagined most of our encounters with such AI beings might be as enemies, what’s to say it couldn’t also be as ‘friends’?  In her new book, “The Friend Machine: On the Trail of AI Companionship,” our guest, Victoria Hetherington, takes a deep dive into something many of us have a hard time contemplating.

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