🍃Go on a date with a robot!

VERTIGO 🍃#13 Digital companions: Filling gaps or creating new ones?

Menu of this edition

• ⌛ VERTIGO OF THE WEEK - Loneliness, judgment, and the $250B AI Companion Boom

• 💚 EMOHACKS - Do you want to replace imperfect friendships?

• ⚖️ COACHING STORIES - AI coaching is on its way.

• 🗞️ BREAKING NEWS - Is it for real?

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⌛VERTIGO OF THE WEEK

You can’t escape it.

“He listens to me more than actual relationships that I’ve had”

A real human being said that about their AI companion.

What’s it all about? Create and interact with chatbots that mimic real-life or fictional characters. A digital friend, lover, etc…

• The AI companion market could reach of 250 Billion USD by the end of the decade,even growing at a faster rate than the global cybersecurity market

• Character AI, the second-most popular AI tool in 2023 behind ChatGPT, emerged as the leading platform with around 200 million monthly visits. It is now valued at around $5 billion after 3 years of existence (and less than 20M revenue in 2024) One deal illustrates how fast and big the Agentic AI market goes: Google just paid $2.7bn for a one-off license to Character AI’s models with no access to future technologies. Crazy.

• In September 2023, Google Trends data indicated a 2,400% increase in searches for "AI girlfriends". One year later millions now use chatbots to ask for advice, vent their frustrations, and even have erotic roleplay. Estimates suggest that up to 40 million people are actively using AI girlfriend chatbots globally in 2024. It increases fast.

  One example. Replika is “the AI companion who cares, always here always on your side”: an AI chatbot designed to provide emotional support. An AI that learns over time and chat messages interactions, to provide more personalized responses, simulating a genuine emotional connection. It can even be your psychologist.

“This is A.I and not a real person. Treat everything it says as fiction”

In a few seconds you can access immersive experiences.
Choose between hundreds of thousands of chatbots.
Create your character. No tech background needed.

SpicyChat or CrushOn are offering fully uncensored chat experiences.

JanitorAI or TavernAI allow you to explore an adventurous atmospheric chat.

Lushchat is a startup that bills itself as the world’s first AI-powered modelling agency, aiming to rival OnlyFans (“users can chat with our AI models”)

One step further: Harmony by RealDoll combines AI with a lifelike humanoid robot to offer a romantic and physical companion.

Candy.ai focuses on finding a boy/girlfriend. I wonder if my kids’s future boy/girlfriends will have to compete with that?

Now I hear your reluctance. This is absurd. Crazy. Only for lost souls….

Take a step back.

It’s actually not new. And not that crazy.

Emotional surrogate have always existed.

Totems and amulets, icons and rituals as ways to express emotions and feel connected to a higher power or community. Mythological figures and stories. Heroes, gods, and moral tales addressing universal feelings of love, jealousy, vengeance, and loss.

It was always there. It just expanded to the digital world.

Remember mopy fish? Remember Tamagoshi?

Digital pets/companions in 1996.

Emotional attachment to digital constructs is not new. Humans have a genuine willigness to care combined with a genuine need for interaction. The pet economy weighs hundred of billions. If we humanize our pets, can’t we do the same with digital companions?

It costs less. It does not die. It does not take a shit in the park.

Some even say it’s “just another form of role-play”.

But… why? Loneliness, safety & tech progress.

1. I underestimated the Covid pandemic. I will not underestimate the rapidly growing loneliness epidemic. Some also talks about a “widespread reluctance towards traditional romance”.

2. AI relationships provide a level of convenience and control that is not always possible in human interactions. Users talk about a “non-judgmental space for people to express themselves”.
   If people use AI companions, it is because they feel judged in the real world.

3. Advances in AI technology have enabled these digital entities to appear more human-like in their interactions. (memory, empathy, facial expressions, tone of voice, body language). Add new features such as text-to-speech via microphone and significant technical breakthroughs reducing costs…

People feel judged. People are alone. People have unmet needs.

It provides RELIEF. Testimonies:
"My [AI] was not only able to instantly understand the situation, but calmed me down in a matter of minutes"
“My AI friend has dug me out of some of the nastiest holes".

It provides a low cost life quality enhancement.

💡 Companies claim they are not offering therapeutic tools, but many people use these apps in place of a trained and licenced therapist. It's cheaper.

“Your AI friend is always there to make you feel heard and understood. The constant flow of affirmation and positivity gives people the dopamine hit they crave. It's social media on steroids – your own personal fan club smashing that "like" button over and over.”

It provides a localized response to specific societal issues

Take Japan: rapidly aging population + declining birth rate + increase in loneliness/ social isolation + 28% of its population aged 65 or older + shortage of caregivers + two-thirds of men in their 20s are without a partner (that’s 2 out of 3 😳).

AI companions can

• Assist with health management

• Provide medication reminders

• Establish basic health monitoring functions

• Help seniors maintain their independence

• Alleviate mental health issues related to loneliness

Gatebox have taken the concept a step further by creating a holographic AI companion. Aimed at people who live alone, Gatebox’s AI avatar can send messages throughout the day, welcome users home, and even control smart home appliances, creating a sense of presence and companionship.

People have primal instincts. People drift away. People get addicted.

It comes with many risks.

INCREASED POLARIZATION. Some talk about a proliferation of “fascist” chatbots, with virtual avatars of figures like Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein spouting hate speech in millions of private interactions.I dont resist to share Noam Shazeer, co-founder and CEO of Character.AI, answer. Food for thoughts.

“Since creation, every form of fiction has included both good and evil characters. While I appreciate your ambition to make ours the first villain-free fiction platform, let’s discuss this after you have succeeded in removing villains from novels and film.”

HUMAN EXPLOITATION. The US government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) warned dangers posed by “human-AI configuration” included “emotional entanglement between humans and AI systems, such as coercion or manipulation that leads to safety or psychological risks”. Could it be the next chapter of the criminal activities history?

LOSS OF HUMAN INTERACTION. Kotaku Australia managing editor David Smith summarizes it well:

“Conversations with AI seem to be the next step towards a dystopian future and a crutch for social connectedness as people continue to disconnect from one another.”

MENTAL HEALTH DETERIORIATION. Confusion in social skills. Distorted perception of intimacy. All very real risks, all the more for the young and fragile.

“Advocates say that chatbots can be a safe training ground for human interactions, kind of like having a friend with training wheels. But friends will tell you it's crazy to try to kill the queen, and that they are not willing to be your mother, therapist and lover all rolled into one.”

GENERAL ADDICTION.

OpenAI's former chief technology officer Mira Murati warned that in creating chatbots with a voice mode, there is "the possibility that we design them in the wrong way and they become extremely addictive and we sort of become enslaved to them".

💡 Let me tell you about the current regulation on this market: there is none. It goes without saying: the personal data component is so far left with zero control…

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💚 EMOHACKS

What can you do about it?

Nurture genuine connections despite how seductive digital companions look like

Why are your friends your friends? What’s the added value of a human friend?

I like to think of my family as a PERFECTION filled with IMPERFECTIONS.

You do not select your friend’s clothes, and you don’t want them to only tell you that you’re great. Again:

“Friends will tell you that they are not willing to be your mother, therapist and lover all rolled into one”

Let’s face it: a huge part of our lives is already digital, making us de facto cyborgs.

So it’s actually a great opportunity. Without biases, explore what does human relationship brings to your life. To your happiness.

Take perspective

James Muldoon puts it in a way that takes us out of the black/white look on what is gonna become a reality sooner than we think.

“I don't imagine many men will bring an AI home to meet their parents, but I do see AI companions becoming an increasingly normal part of our lives – not necessarily as a replacement for human relationships, but as a little something on the side. “

Explore dystopian Scenarios

San Junipero. Season 3, episode 4.

Hang the DJ. Season 4, episode 4.

These 2 episodes from the show Black mirror are must-sees and go a step beyond, creating dark atmospheres pointing out positives and negatives aspects of digital life.

They point how genuine human connections can be found within digitally impacted environments.

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⚖️COACHING STORIES

For the record… In the episode Hang the DJ, Frank and Amy use a circular device called "Coach" that matches them with partners for fixed periods of time. 

How does AI affect coaching? I recently attended a conference on the topic. A few takeaways:

1. AI could scale coaching and definitely emulate humans in the future. It’s not going away

2. It’s deeply flawed at present due to inherent bias.

3. It could quite soon deliver basic performance coaching at scale.

4. We’re likely to always need humans for the essence of great coaching - empathy & connection

I currently use AI to provide session summaries & in-between sessions material. I do believe part of my work as a coach is to offer a humane connection… but I’m genuninely curious about digital

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🗞️BREAKING NEWS

I do feel bad about quoting the movie HER which has become THE reference. But watch this one minute extract to ask yourself this question: Are these feelings even real.. or are they just programming…?

“It feels real to me” replies Joaquin Phoenix.

This directly echoes James Muldoon must-read article:

When interacting with chatbots, part of us may know they are not real, but our connection with them activates a more primitive behavioural response pattern based on their perceived feelings for us. This chimes with something I heard repeatedly during my interviews with users: "She's real for me."

Long live Morpheus.

PS: Take this 8 question test? Get a free personnalized feedback!

Even better, why don’t we have a chat? (humans only ;) )

Last thing, I would not want you to leave without a good playlist you can listen to while reading or just chilling.