AI Partners

I’ve been watching a pair of trends that I think could collide at some point: that of human beings getting really, really into AI—as work partners, but also partner partners, akin to AI girlfriends and boyfriends and x-friends—and the trend of declining birthrates, nearly globally.

I suspect the appeal of AI friends and romantic partners is largely about the relative paucity of options when it comes to human versions of the same.

It’s partly because of deleterious social mores, partly because of belief system- and value-conflicts between people who would otherwise get along, partly because of intensified polarization between groups and their perceived Other/out-groups, partly because of unrealistic standards portrayed in all sorts of media, and partly because our social lives and communities have largely moved online and thus are increasingly disembodied.

I also don’t think this is a 100% terrible thing.

Consider that many people already have different relations that fulfill different needs. Maybe a romantic partner, maybe a best friend, maybe an at-work ‘partner’ who’s a combination of many things, maybe an online parasocial fling or mentor or sub-in parent.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with having different people filling these different roles, as long as everyone involved understands where the lines are and is getting what they need.

Integrating AI systems into this dynamic makes a sort of sense, then, considering that for many of us, it’s already not just humans playing these roles: it’s pets, it’s books, it’s hobbies like hiking and playing video games, and it’s real people who don’t actually know us, but who we feel like we know.

This could get interesting, though, if we think about what happens if and when artificial procreation (of some shape or form) someday becomes accessible, common, and socially acceptable.

Do we still combine the roles of romantic partner and procreationary partner, or do we rearrange things so that we maybe have kids with our best friends and have other people we cuddle (and do other such things) with?

Do we have people we blend our genes with and others we build and manage a home with, and still others we tell all our problems and spend our free time with, like a best friend?

And which of these roles might AI systems sub-in for, and which combinations of elements (humans and non-humans, responsibilities and roles) become weird and not weird, culture-by-culture?