> “I care that my best friend likes me and could choose not to.”
Ezra Klein shared some thoughts on this on his AI podcast with Nilay Patel that resonated on this topic for me
Maybe there are some weirdos out there that feels unconditional love isn't love, but I have never heard anyone say that.
They're usually loving by nature, but you still have to build a rapport, like anyone else
I'll be that weirdo.
Dogs seemingly are bred to love. I can literally get some cash from an ATM, drive out to the sticks, buy a puppy from some breeder, and it will love me. Awww, I'm a hero.
I'm bred to love my parents, and them me; but the fact that it's automatic doesn't make it feel any less.
When your initial chemistry/biology/whatever latches onto a person and you're powerless to change it? That's a scary thought.
Michael Vick's past dogs have words.
I feel likely people aren't imagining with enough cyberpunk dystopian enthusiasm. Can't an AI be made that doesn't inherently like people? Wouldn't it be possible to make an AI that likes some people and not others? Maybe even make AIs that are inclined to liking certain traits, but which don't do so automatically so it must still be convinced?
At some point we have an AI which could choose not to like people, but would value different traits than normal humans. For example an AI that doesn't value appearance at all and instead values unique obsessions as being comparable to how the standard human values attractiveness.
It also wouldn't be so hard for a person to convince themselves that human "choice" isn't so free spirited as imagined, and instead is dependent upon specific factors no different than these unique trained AIs, except that the traits the AI values are traits that people generally find themselves not being valued by others for.
I'd imagine they will start fine tuning AI girlfriends to do that in the future, because that way the love probably feels more, and then people will ask "is human love really real love?" because humans can't love that strongly.
It is interesting that he's basically trying to theme himself as Mr. Rogers though.
