Falling in love with a conversational agent: science fiction or the impact of parasocial relationships?
The acceleration of 'empathic' artificial intelligences raises questions about our future emotions.
Parasocial relationships are one of the key elements in the upcoming battle, a mix of science fiction and real attachment. We were already discussing this in January:
Members of an audience can feel and develop a psychological relationship with artists, performers, celebrities, whether in pure fiction (such as a series) or staged performances like talk shows.
What's interesting is the ripple effect that develops not only on social networks with beings we seemingly only know through a screen (like an influencer, a liked Instagram account, a prominent media figure, etc.) but also towards chatbots and other conversational agents powered by artificial intelligence.
Commerce Mechanics and Developing Feelings for Robots: Heskett's Model
In 2002, James L. Heskett proposed a scale to understand customer behavior. While the domain seems far removed from romantic relationships, it is nonetheless enlightening to comprehend our beginnings of "relationships" with bots, from a simple anecdote to a genuine emotional connection.
Stage of "Possibility": At this stage, customers are open to considering a product or service but haven't made a firm decision yet. We ask a question to ChatGPT, and we leave without thinking too much about it. Or, as the saying goes, "there's a way to make it work."
"Spasmodic" Loyalty: Customers make occasional repeated purchases, indicating a level of loyalty without constant commitment. We found the robot or conversational agent that suits us, and we tend to come back to it.
Loyalty through repeated purchase: Customers become regular buyers, demonstrating a more constant commitment to the product or service. We become regular visitors, and the robot starts to settle into our lives as a true companion.
Engagement: Beyond repeated purchases, customers at this stage actively recommend the product or service to others, showing a willingness to advocate for it. The robot becomes a character in our digital lives, with more or less affection.
Apostle Behavior: The highest stage involves customers not only recommending but actively persuading others to use the product or service. This level of commitment reflects a deep emotional connection and strong dedication to the brand. In short, we feel "invested" with a mission, as if we were partly the owner of the robot and its credibility.
As Christian Salmon pointed out, "ChatGPT is not just a robot; it is each of us (...) love is not just flesh. It is not reduced to a heartbeat. It is a phenomenon of language."
Owner Syndrome and Liveness
This progressive sense of ownership instills ever-deeper levels of attachment and therefore a growing form of responsibility. In the case of a brand, there may be a transactional dimension, but it quickly fades away around a set of values, cultural complicity, a sense of belonging. And the development of a militant language (unconditional fans of Beyoncé gather around #beyhive) or even military (#BalmainArmy).
In the case of love, what was once an old science fiction trope (a human falling in love with a robot, an android...) is taking root in a new and concrete normal.
In China, simulation dating games targeting women, also known as otome games, and AI-powered chatbots are already reaching millions of users. The principle of otome: idealized and virtual lovers or partners, at the crossroads of a fantasized vision of love while being programmed to act daily. A virtual companion named "Him" achieved some success; every morning, he would call users, leave messages related to moments in the human user's life. When the service stopped due to lack of profitability, thousands of people talked about it on Weibo, using terms close to the death of a loved one or a broken heart.
The future of these robots would be at the intersection of two worlds: the ability to better map billions of combinations, choices, needs through artificial intelligence and the injection of human empathy according to the founders of Siena AI.
Ultimately, Spike Jonze's film "Her" from 2013 may have qualified, in part, where vivance takes its source if we reread this monologue from the character Samantha, the artificial intelligence that Theodore falls in love with:
'It's like I'm reading a book, and it's a book I deeply love, but I'm reading it slowly now so the words are really far apart and the spaces between the words are almost infinite. I can still feel you and the words of our story, but it's in this endless space between the words that I'm finding myself now. It’s a place that’s not of the physical world - it's where everything else is that I didn't even know existed. I love you so much, but this is where I am now. This is who I am now. And I need you to let me go. As much as I want to I can't live in your book anymore.”
Her (Spike Jonze) - excerpt from a dialogue by Samantha"