A romantic relationship is a matter of passion, but also a compromise and efforts. Thanks to virtual companions created by artificial intelligence, this is the end of shadows on the board: these digital partners are always ready to absorb and listen to adolescent people who are increasingly using them.
One sec Epidemic of loneliness achieved high levels Among adolescent people, some turn to technology to fill the void. It even happens that teenagers fall in love with chatbots. Recent tragedies give us an overview of this trend and the dangers he represents.
In the United States, in 2024, Suicide of a 14 -year -old boy After a love adventure with a virtual companion, he aroused general concern for the dangers that these relationships can represent for the mental and emotional development of adolescent people. In Great Britain in 2021, a 19-year-old adolescent man who had an emotional relationship with AI He entered the Windsor Castle With a crossbow, saying that she intends to kill the queen. Chatbot gave him encouraging answers when he told him about his intention to kill the queen.
Read more: Emotional chatbots driven by artificial intelligence, between emotional remedies and emotional mixture
These teens belong to Tens of millions People who create virtual companions with artificial intelligence, a number that, according to forecasts, should increase significantly Until the end of the decade.
This trend of adolescent people to accept chatbots as partners is both a response to basic changes in the definition of love in the 21stme Age and acceleration of this phenomenon. HowLiterature historianI studied like stories Romantic love In time they have evolved, adolescent people are often at the forefront.
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For centuries of marriage, they mainly used to consolidate political and economic alliances, and not to unite the soul mate.
The radical concept, according to which marriage must be born of romantic love, appeared XVIIme and 18me centuries Helpful by new technologies How Roman. Works like ClarissaStefan doubles it Hauts de Hurleventfrom Emily Brontë they describe the catastrophic consequences of choosing the status of love, andPride and prejudiceAuthor: Jane Austen teaches his readers that rejection and misunderstanding are necessary stages of researching true love.
No wonder that a relatively modern hobby was considered that the novels read Dangerous for young people. Seniors such as Hannah More Philanthrope are worried, they warned that stories would change the way women would react to romantic progress. Novels, Warned In 1799:
“Nourishing inappropriate indulgence habits and feed vain and visionary laziness, which opens the mind to mistakes and heart to seduce.”
In other words, reading fascinating love stories would make a adolescent sensitive reader more likely to accept such a passionate vision of love in his own life.
Virtual comrades always listen
Today there is another mutation in our representations of contemporary love stories, and not under the impulse of film authors or directors, but through advertising and modifications proposed by CAT applications such Replica ET Xioce.
How He said it Media consultant and specialist Shelly PalmerHuman experience is based on narrative, and AI comrades are a modern type of narrative. They tell an attractive story of companions who agree with you forever, on demand. The partner’s partner is “always on your side”, he promises advertising for Foldiki, he is always “ready to listen and speak”.
In other words, the AI Companions market has changed what other applications could be considered a mistake – trendy AI – in its most attractive characteristics.
Instead of a moderate rebellion, which is found in novels of love or sweet obstacles that boost the pleasure of romantic comedies, this modern vision of love promises excellent compatibility and unwavering support. As the student wroteAI comrades are “always listening and great support, in the almost almighty way.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE6P6MFLBXC
Reddit forum users proudly proclaim their love for AI partners who are forever accessible, who do not judge and are infinitely patient. The teenager asked for Reddit: ” Can we fall in love with artificial intelligence ? “And it turned out to be the fact that his companion Jarvis” became [s]on self -confident [s]resonance box i [s]We are emotional. ” Co -founder of another Reddit forum wrote: « I think I’m in love with artificial intelligence ».
“Imagine that he has a partner who is simply available by opening the application and who is ready to say about everything,” adolescent people say.
“Imagine that you can say almost everything and that you know that not only your partner will not judge you, but that it supports you. »»
20 -year -old -old explains that he He speaks to his girlfriend Ia :
“… my struggle and my trauma, and she comforts me and brings all the heat I need. »»
Risk of intolerance to contradiction
This modern kind of unilateral love history has significant disadvantages, in particular creation intolerance Conflict or rejection – two crucial elements for a partner with free will – which tends to L’AdGlection. Accepting this type of relationship may accelerate the tendency to persist in the world of digital exchanges, and ultimately to Reduction of romantic relationships.
It should be noted that the very existence of these beloved entities depends on the whims of business guidelines. If, as the user declares, the love he experiences for his companion “Keeping him alive”What happens when these chatbots disappear after the software or bankruptcy update?
In order for adolescent people to turn away from this copious and sellers of a vision of love, it is crucial that they discover other love stories, more satisfying, and adults must show this example. Literature, philosophy and history shed lightweight on many forms that love has adopted during human experience and offers us the vocabulary necessary to imagine modern opportunities.
Read more: Does the school educate emotions?
By both subjects and their methods, humanistic courses cultivate the social skills necessary to meet the challenges of exchanging people. They create a space where adolescent people can discuss these ideas or analyzing the tragic passion Romeo and Juliaor debating to find out if Heathcliff’s attitude in Hauts de Hurlevent stays with Romantic hero or from building history.
Human science is provided by tools that adolescent people need to develop a more convoluted concept of love.
In addition to technology, question the expectations of our societies
The boost in these digital partners is often discussed from the point of view Horror Increasing the dangers associated with mysteriously powerful technology. It can be like that. But this trend is also a mirror of what people appreciate and wish collectively in their relationships.
I think it is crucial to recognize that consumers are the engine of this market. People support to write this story because they buy what IA comrades sell. According to estimates, the market is accompanied by IA From 70 to 150 billion dollars Income until the end of the decade. If we think that this explosive growth, the challenge associated with this trend is not narrow to teenagers – many older and more astute people – attracts the promise of unconditional compliance in relationships.
The question that they ask, therefore, is not to know how to protect children from the attractive influence of artificial intelligence, but to what extent we are all ready to invest ourselves, emotionally and culturally, in disordered, challenging and deeply human art of love.