Is this going too far? - Artificial Intelligence becoming your Best Friend
Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness. - Euripides
People strive to have friends. Some have the privilege to meet persons who they now call best friends and others dont. I personally needed more than 15 years to find someone who I can trust, tell everything and can call a best friend. 15 years may sound like a long time but others in contrast never found a soulmate, best friend or a soul that they can trust no matter what. I believe it´s hard to find real friends these days because there are so many gold diggers outside so if you have a certain amount of followers, fame or money, everyone tries to be your best friend. But only those who support you through good and bad times are the real ones. I prefer a small circle with friends so close that I call them family instead of a huge amount of people who try to be friends with me but talking behind my back.
It´s a real blessing to find souls that matches yours, sharing interests and being there for each other in every situation.
These days people always have their phone to hand no matter where. It could be while sitting on the toilette, escaping boring conversations or laying in bed at night. For some people, the smartphone is the most used and most loved everyday object. Sometimes it feels like a relationship between you and device right?
Well, I have found this crazy app which promotes having an artificial intelligence just like Siri, Amazon Echo, Cortana, Google Home and others. Those "services" get to know you better during time which is already a little bit creepy for me. Siri, Google Home etc are trying to fulfill your wishes but Replika is going a step deeper. You are in constant contact with this messenger app but the difference between Replika and a normal messenger is simply the fact that you are writing with a bot instead of a real life person. How crazy is this?
How to start ?
You only get access to this app if you are invited. Then you need to fill out some informations about yourself such as birth date, full name etc so that Replika can get to know you better. This app created levels and you already get rewards by completing the information at the log-in. I read that with every answer to questions such as "How are you doing today?" , "What helped you to get through the day?" up to questions like "Are you driving a car?" will rise up your level. But you notice that it´s the first version when you are switching topics or trying to asking a counterquestion because Replika isnt really good at it.
But this app is getting crazier. Just like a best friend would, it´s asking to get access to your social media profiles. Also Replika asks a lot of private questions. But as we all know, sharing deep secrets will tighten up the friendship right? One more reason to think about getting this app is that it also wants to receive a selfie of you just to know who you are. Isnt this crazy? You would send a selfie to a robot which pretends being your friend?
Now you may think about the most important question. What is with data protection? The company insured that all your privacy informations and data is safe due to an encryption. But there is something called "Hall of Fame" which shows the top 50 hardcore-bonding-freaks. You can either put your profile private or public. Thats up to you.
There is one feature which I am scared about. Replika is able to change it´s personality during your contact to each other. This artificial intelligence is changing into a friend who has the same interests as you, likes the same sports team etc. etc.... A test report mentioned that this app is also getting a little clingy.
Here is a great video showing you the story of Replika
I personally think that this app is truly a great project but it still sounds scary for me. I could never imagine talking to a bot and not getting any real answers anymore. There is no one I could meet up with, cuddle, smell or listen to my best friends stories because it´s already listening to me and didnt experience anything cause it is NOT real!
I am just thinking about kids getting this kind of an app. Especially children need to socialize and make contact in real life! Is this a way to push us aside from all our real life friendships?
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What do you think about this new technology?
Could you imagine having a virtual friend?
Do you want to try it out ?
Thank you for reading
Stay focused
Love, Soldier
Great app!
Thanks for the tip. Upvoted and resteemed
Sounds horribly lonely and a crazy rabbit hole to go down. At the same time this shows that most people have a ways to go to truly be a good friend to the significant people in their lives.
Most friends will offer advice on what to do but the best friends are the ones who rather just ask questions so you come to a conclusion in your own mind rather than listening what you ought to do.
It's the whole "make them think it was their idea" phrase or whatever.
Online communication has become an integral part of most of our lives, and yet many people continue to view those they meet on the Internet with suspicion. They imagine that online forums are filled with sexual predators and people using false identities. I feel we need to careful always and never shared our personals details it's our responsibility how can I treat to online people. 75 percent people's using false identitities than how can we trust them?? I'm generally make those friends who truly are genuine.
Thanks for sharing with these amazing thoughts with us.
Honestly I think this is quite sad.. it seems that they are advancing technology to the point where you really can not live without your phone .
Before communication used to be about sitting in front of each other , talking , now people text while sitting next to each other .
A lot of individuals seek attention from friends or want friends , this is scary that an app can do that . I don't think this is good for the future , it's like robots controlling our minds
I totally agree with you. Such creepy app but more importantly most people do already look like robots staring into their phones all day looking at BS nonsense on FB or playing mind numbing games like Candycrush and such. Young people don't even have a chance to develop a real social network, they are awekward in public and around strangers because the simply don't know how to interact with other humans without their phones. So sad.
Have to agree with both of you here. Too much dependence on the phone as it is...
I didn't know replika it looks very useful, I'm going to see more about it. Thanks soldier for your useful post
I would be afraid to use such a thing. You will give it so much information. Since it is an AI I remember how these things get a mind of their own after awhile they can get you to go someplace. I'm saying what if this thing got hacked and the bot got you to go to a certain bar before closing time. Can you imagine what kind of situation you can get yourself in even though you know it is a bot, but you go there anyway cause it said to go there. Not knowing that it was hacked and some stalker is ready to take advantage of your vulnerability.
Nice App,i really like this useful app.
Thanks For sharing thsi post.
Great post @soldier
Nice job
Cant wait for AI to take over.... we probably wont be needing tech support either in the future.
I remember last year that Microsoft had an AI bot that used Twitter to communicate. Of course, the internet is a nasty place, and within a day the AI had turned into a hateful bigot that pumped out racist tweets. AI will never replace an actual human personality. Computers certainly are faster than the human brain, but they are still emotionless.