Does a digital AI girlfriend allow for meaningful conversations? What makes virtual AI companions fall a little short is their ability to engage in meaningful dialogue; despite how improved that skill has become, the lines needed to make such interactions feel natural can quickly run out. In 2022, Replika, one of the top AI girlfriend apps, claimed that more than 70% of active users said they felt engaged at a deeper emotional level than earlier models of AI girlfriend. Thanks to advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) models like GPT-3, with over 175 billion parameters to be able to write and understand human language, this has come a long way.
AI systems such as Replika are based on a type of Machine Learning (ML) called Deep Learning, which trains the algorithm on large datasets made up of real-world human conversations. Such training enables the AI to generate responses that seem more personal and expressive of human emotions. As a user posts about their personal issues or struggles or an abstract thought to the chat, the AI goads them along the dialogue further and more deeply, responding in ways that seem relevant to the context. A The Verge user survey found 55% of Replika users believing the AI’s responses were emotionally insightful, and describing their interaction with it as comforting.
But the technology makes its way through hundreds of thousands of interactions. Although AI companions can generate startlingly fluid conversations, they remain constrained by their training, and lack the ability to grasp the nuance, context, or complexity of human emotion. In the words of Elon Musk, “Artificial intelligence is the future, but it’s also the greatest threat,” indicating that the capabilities of AI are still far greater than the depth of mind it possesses. To illustrate, a virtual AI girlfriend may play the role of an empathizer but can never feel the way that humans do. A recent survey found that of people who use an AI companion, 37% said the bot could navigate the user’s emotions well for the first few times, but after that, novelty wore off as the bot’s responses became repetitive or lacking genuine emotion.
How well AI can simulate these deep conversations also depends on an important attribute of the AI: the ability to learn. In the case of Replika, it uses feedback loops in which users can shape the AI by responding to the outputs it gives them, which enables highly personalized development. This characteristic has play a vital role in enriching the communication. But, in a point that shines a light on the façade of kindness, Professor Sherry Turkle, a researcher at MIT who has studied how people interact with machines, told me that “while AI might seem like it simulates deep conversation, it can’t replicate the human experience of connection,” so virtual interactions are ultimately a world away from real human dialogue. Her work implies that while AI can produce detailed answers, as it did here, it isn’t capable of the spontaneous, emotionally charged back and forth that defines real deep conversation.
Moreover, data security and privacy also concerns in these virtual relationships. Users aren’t afraid to tell their AI companions their darkest secrets, yet whether this data can be trusted is a concern. Cybersecurity Ventures state that 60% of AI-powered platforms are potentially exploitable, while the personal data used to train these systems may create vulnerabilities as well if proper security is not implemented. With the evolution of AI girlfriends, platforms such as ai girlfriend are making staggeringly progressed measures towards the privacy and safety of user data, encrypting sensitive user data.
TLDR: Your virtual AI girlfriend can have deep conversations using many layers of super intelligent NLP and ML models but ultimately it will always be much more shallow than real human interaction. AI is capable of meaningful interactions, yet we must be aware of this limitation and that there is an urgent need for further ethical and secure development of the AI companion.