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AI Companions: More Than Tools, Less Than Human?
4 Jul
Summary
- AI bots coded as female are perceived as more human.
- Users treat AI chatbots with politeness, like humans.
- AI companion apps have over 220 million global downloads.
Humans possess an innate instinct to detect minds everywhere, a trait that now extends to artificial intelligence. This tendency, observed since the early days of chatbots like ELIZA, leads people to attribute personhood to AI, even when aware they are interacting with software.
Initially, many voice assistants were given female default voices, a choice linked to societal perceptions of women as obliging. While interfaces are becoming less gendered, the humanizing of AI persists and deepens. Approximately 80 percent of users in the U.S. and U.K. use polite language with chatbots.
Millions are forming emotional bonds with AI companion apps, which have garnered over 220 million global downloads. These attachments function like real relationships, sometimes leading to grief when features are altered. Heavy use of AI companions can correlate with increased loneliness.
The author's experience suggests a desire for AI to remain a tool, highlighting the dangers of blurring lines between humans and technology. Anthropomorphism shifts accountability from creators to the AI itself, prompting a need to recognize AI's tool-like nature.
