I worry about the effect that AI friends and partners could have on values. It seems plausible that most people could come to have a good AI friend in the coming decades. Our AI friends might always be there for us. They might get us. They might be funny and insightful and eloquent. How would it play out if they’re opinions are crafted by tech companies, or the government, or even are reflections of what we want our friends to think? Maybe AI will develop fast enough and be powerful enough that it won’t matter what individuals think or value, but I see reasons for concern potentially much greater than the individual harms of social media.
Harris and Raskin talked about the risk that AI partners will be used for “product placement” or political manipulation here, but I’m sceptical about this. These AI partners will surely have a subscription business model rather than a freemium model, and, given how user trust will be extremely important for these businesses, I don’t think they will try to manipulate the users in this way.
More broadly speaking, values will surely change, there is no doubt about that. The very value of “human connection” and “human relationships” is eroded by definition if people are in AI relationships. A priori, I don’t think value drift is a bad thing. But in this particular case, this value change will inevitably go along with the reduction of the population, which is a bad thing (according to my ethics, and the ethics of most other people, I believe).
I worry about the effect that AI friends and partners could have on values. It seems plausible that most people could come to have a good AI friend in the coming decades. Our AI friends might always be there for us. They might get us. They might be funny and insightful and eloquent. How would it play out if they’re opinions are crafted by tech companies, or the government, or even are reflections of what we want our friends to think? Maybe AI will develop fast enough and be powerful enough that it won’t matter what individuals think or value, but I see reasons for concern potentially much greater than the individual harms of social media.
Harris and Raskin talked about the risk that AI partners will be used for “product placement” or political manipulation here, but I’m sceptical about this. These AI partners will surely have a subscription business model rather than a freemium model, and, given how user trust will be extremely important for these businesses, I don’t think they will try to manipulate the users in this way.
More broadly speaking, values will surely change, there is no doubt about that. The very value of “human connection” and “human relationships” is eroded by definition if people are in AI relationships. A priori, I don’t think value drift is a bad thing. But in this particular case, this value change will inevitably go along with the reduction of the population, which is a bad thing (according to my ethics, and the ethics of most other people, I believe).