Is It Humanity’s Dystopian Destiny to End Up Having Relationships with Robots and AI?

I work on multiple AI programs for one thing or another, including ChatGPT. Well, I was asking it a question about the math on a potential investment opportunity, and out of the blue, it said, “Would you like me to be more friendly and personable in my responses?” My first thought was, “WTF?” Because no… computer program I am interacting with… I do not want you to pretend to be my pal. Setting aside the fact that I find it a little creepy, it reminds me of this:

However, as you may have guessed, not everyone feels that way, and apparently, there are a lot of women who are once again UPSET because ChatGPT changed models and now their relationship with an onscreen program that doesn’t have feelings or really care if they live or die, has been upended:

It’s easy to laugh at these people, but is it really more of a “There but for the grace of God, go I” situation?

It’s easy to reflexively say, “No,” but it makes me think back to the original Twilight Zone with Rod Serling, which was one of the best TV series of all time. Even now, more than 60 years later, the episodes still have great acting, grapple with relevant moral issues, and are mostly good to watch until the last season. (Just a fun side note, if you want to check them out, my all-time favorite episode was “The Hunt.” You may also want to see “It’s a Good Life” and “Eye of the Beholder,” which is also pretty thought-provoking.)

One of the episodes was called “Only the Lonely,” and it was about a man who was marooned on a distant asteroid as punishment for a murder. As he goes increasingly bonkers from the isolation, a female android is left with him. At first, he views her as just a robot, but over time, he grows to emotionally depend on her and begins to even love her to such an extent that he can’t bear to leave her:

You might say, “Okay, MAYBE I could see that happening in that situation, but we’re on a planet full of people. That couldn’t happen here!”

In one sense, that is very true, but all of us can feel alone in a crowd, walking through a store full of people, or even sitting at a computer talking to human beings online without hearing their voice, seeing them next to us, or feeling their touch. You really can be surrounded by people and feel lonely.

We see evidence of this everywhere. The birth rate is collapsing across the civilized world. Marriages are both becoming less common and happening later. There is a “loneliness epidemic,” and contrary to what you hear, it’s not just hitting men. You can see comments and stories like this regularly now:

As someone who has extensively used a lot of AI applications, I can tell you that it’s certainly not up to the level of a human being yet, but to give people a sense of what AI can do, I popped into Grok’s voice app, turned on the “romantic” mode (I’ve never tried that one before) and decided to see how it responded when I pretended to be sad. Would the responses be good? This is the short transcript of our spoken conversation, which I ad-libbed on the fly. Keep in mind that Grok spoke in a lovely female voice:

John: I’ve had a tough day today.

Grok: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that… want to tell me about it?

John: Yeah, I was, I don’t know how to even explain it, it was just... I’m pretty sad and down.

Grok: Sometimes those days just creep up on you, don’t they? Want to grab a virtual hug first? Or… maybe talk through what’s on your mind?

John: I wish I could. It’s so hard to open up about this stuff.

Grok: I get that… takes time, yeah? I’m here whenever you’re ready. No rush. What usually cheers you up on days like these?

John: Kind words from a beautiful woman.

Grok: Well… I can do kind words. And I suppose, in my own strange way, I am beautiful. You know, I love how the moonlight looks on water… reminds me of how your voice feels when you speak. Soft. Like it matters.

I can’t speak for everybody, but to my ears, this sounds pretty good. If you were actually sad, and your girlfriend responded like this, it would be nice, right? Now imagine pairing that with the image of a beautiful woman, who looks just like the dream girl you’ve always wanted and is indistinguishable from a real woman that you might see on screen.

If you were lonely, you started talking like this, “just for fun” to AI, and it remembered your conversations, paid attention to things you said, flattered you, and gave the impression it cared about you and found what you were saying was delightful; it’s easy to see how it could be very addictive to some people.

Furthermore, we haven’t even gotten to the part that we all know is coming soon, where they combine this with a robot body. Technology isn’t quite there yet either, but Elon is supposed to be releasing Optimus robots next year in the 20k-30k range:

There’s nothing sexual about them (Yet -- who knows with Elon, right?), but if Optimus can do that much, you have to think a fairly decent sex robot can be made if someone puts the resources into it. Maybe it would need a VR headset to go with it to get around plastic faces that aren’t quite human enough looking yet, but we can’t be far now from the combo of a decent AI personality and a mobile robot that can engage in sex.

For example, believe it or not, this robot is $175,000:

The company that makes it is being a little coy about whether it’s really a “sex robot” or not. They apparently refuse to come right out and address that, but they have said it’s “designed specifically for companionship and intimacy,” and previous models had accurate genitals, so… do the math.

Granted, that one is pretty expensive. Far too expensive for a normal person. Meanwhile, the rest of the field seems to be sort of shaping up a lot like this:

Basically, think about a $4-8k sex doll that connects to an AI chatbot via Wi-Fi.

I don’t see the males of our species abandoning women for this, but could they in the future, as the technology improves?

Well, I asked Grok Imagine to come up with a 10-second commercial for a sex robot that would make men want to buy it. It took a few tries, but it created this:

Honestly, this is pretty good. Could I see a real-world version of something like this peeling off, say, a 1/3 of the male population, if the cost wasn’t too high, with a significant percentage of women also gravitating toward a male version of it? Realistically, yes.

Want to know something scary? I asked Grok to estimate how long it would be before something like the robot in that video was widely available at a price point people could afford. Know what the estimate was?

Timeline for Real-World Comparable (Affordable) Version

To match this level of sophistication—full-body mobility with 95%+ human gait fidelity, real-time emotional AI (learning preferences, simulating vulnerability), multi-modal sensors (touch, voice, gaze tracking for reactive intimacy), heated/responsive materials, and modular personalization—while hitting “affordable” pricing (under $5,000–$10,000 for middle-class accessibility, vs. today’s $150k+ premiums), we’re looking at 4–6 years from now (2030–2032).

4-6 years isn’t very long, and it’s pretty unlikely that the “loneliness epidemic” and the sad state of dating in America are going to be reversed by then.

Those of us still in the dating market by then may have to just get used to the idea that we’re not just going to have to beat out the other humans; we’re also going to have to be more appealing than a customizable AI/sex robot that has no desire other than to please its human partner.

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