Former Google CEO Alarmed by Teen Boys Falling in Love With AI Girlfriends

“You place a 12- or 13-year-old in entrance of this stuff…”

TFW AI GF

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt appears mighty involved about immediately’s youth turning into obsessive about AI girlfriends.

Throughout a recent interview on “The Prof G Present” podcast, Schmidt steered that each dad and mom and younger individuals are ill-equipped to deal with what he calls an “sudden drawback of present know-how.”

These AI companions are, as the previous Google CEO mentioned, so “good” that they find yourself enthralling younger folks and inflicting them to disconnect from the true world.

“That sort of obsession is feasible,” he informed NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway, “particularly for people who find themselves not absolutely fashioned.”

Whereas girls are also turning to AI romantic partners, Schmidt mentioned that younger males are significantly inclined as they “flip to the web world for enjoyment and sustenance.” Due to algorithms pushing problematic content material, these younger males typically stumble throughout harmful content material, be it extremist influencers or manipulative chatbots.

“You place a 12- or 13-year-old in entrance of this stuff, and so they have entry to each evil in addition to each good on the planet,” he informed Galloway, “and so they’re not able to take it.”

Scared Straight

We have seen this play out not too long ago in the true world to devastating impact when a 14-year-old boy in Florida who died by suicide at first of the 12 months after a “Sport of Thrones”-themed chatbot hosted on Character.AI encouraged him to do so.

Although Setzer’s story is much extra excessive than most, it highlights the hazards posed by these lifelike chatbots — and with out correct regulation, these tragedies are more likely to preserve occurring. We have additionally not too long ago seen AI characters that encourage eating disorders and engage in sexual grooming behavior towards underage customers.

Certainly, Schmidt went on to notice that legal guidelines just like the sweeping Part 230 rule that protects tech corporations from being held responsible for hurt brought on by their merchandise protect corporations like Character.AI — which, satirically, Google has provided with billions of dollars in backing — from accountability.

As a result of these applied sciences are so precious, the ex-Google chief mentioned, “it’s more likely to take some sort of a calamity to trigger a change in regulation” — although it is arduous to think about something extra calamitous than a teen dying after his AI girlfriend pushed him to suicide.

Extra on AI gfs: Replika CEO: It’s Fine for Lonely People to Marry Their AI Chatbots