Dr. Moina Khan is an audio enthusiast, who presently works as an Associate Professor in Times School of Media, Bennett University, India. As an industry professional and academician, she has been involved in various national and international assignments in Media and Education. She has worked as a faculty at AJK Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia, and as a station producer with India's first just for women Radio Station, Meow 104.8 FM, producing the Breakfast Show, Meow Zindagi. She was earlier associated with Indian Council of Social Science Research as a Postdoctoral fellow, for a project that explored the usage of Radio as a public sphere for women empowerment. LESS ... MORE
Chitti, a robot programmed to help humans, falls in love with a human. That was Robot, a 2010 action sci-fi. Twombly, a writer buys an AI system to help him with his writings, however, when he finds out that it can follow instructions, learn, and adapt, he falls in love with it. That was Her, the romantic sci-fi in 2013.
We are in 2024 and witnessing, how AI in the real world is changing the dynamics of love. The tools have evolved and are not limited to tasks. When these mere tools are anthropomorphized and are designed with human like traits expressing playfulness, shyness, intelligence, naivety, humor, empathy, compassion, and exhibiting desired looks, all the traits that we generally do not find in our human companions, occasional flirting could potentially make humans fall in love with AI.
Candy AI states, "Your perfect companion is waiting for you; all you have to do is to create her." While training Replika and Dan, we are also training humans to chase perfection in this imperfect world. Relationships are transactional and require efforts, however, we are being coached on effortless instant gratifications. That constant companionship might provide relief from loneliness, but it may isolate us.
Human beings are social animals and their existence in the society defines their beings. These digital companions are potent enough to separate us from the real world. Humans have needs and feelings. These tools have none.
