Artificial intelligence could soon create the perfect virtual partner, according to the formerGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt, potentially represents a social disaster.
Speaking on a podcast hosted by Scott Galloway this week, Schmidt said he fears artificial intelligence may soon be able to provide the emotionally ideal girlfriend to despondent young men struggling to attract a partner.
“That kind of obsession is possible, especially for people who are not fully formed,” he told the New York University marketing professor. Galloway has repeatedly expressed his concern about an entire generation of young men who cannot find their way in life.
The idea that artificial intelligence will appeal to involuntary celibates or “incels”—brought to the big screen in 2013. her— everything is anything but far-fetched. Already ten years ago, researchers found how many likes on Facebook were required, on average, before the algorithm knew a person’s preferences better than a colleague, friend, family member, or even their spouse.
Indeed, Schmidt’s comments come after tragic suicide 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, who was engaging in some kind of relationship with an AI chatbot that demanded he remain faithful to him and not “entertain romantic or sexual interests of other women.”
His mother is now suing the company behind it, claiming it went to great lengths to create a harmful addiction to its product, emotionally abused Setzer and failed to notify anyone when he expressed suicidal thoughts.
“There’s a lot of evidence that there’s a problem with young men now,” said Schmidt, who co-authored a new book on artificial intelligence with the late Henry Kissinger called Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope and the Human Spirit.
“So they turn to the online world for enjoyment and survival, but also – because of social media algorithms – they find like-minded people who ultimately radicalize them, either in a horrible way like terrorism or in the way you’re describing where they’re just maladjusted.”
It will take a ‘crash’ before any guardrails are put in place for AI
Galloway has often expressed his concern that the #MeToo movement, while legitimately uplifting and elevating women, by design or default blackened men in the process.
While the women of generation Z are the first more successful rather than their male counterparts—more likely to attend college, achieve career success, and earn higher salaries—mothers contact Galloway about their Gen Z sons sitting in the basement, drinking and playing video games.
Since women usually want partners who are able to provide for a family, many young men can end up single. This makes them more inclined to seek companionship in artificial intelligence as a consequence, a need that companies are all too ready to exploit for commercial gain.
“The industry is optimized to maximize your attention and monetize it,” Schmidt agreed, explaining that the new administration is unlikely to have any political will to impose guardrails on AI.
The only way to adequately monitor the growing technology is likely to occur after a tragedy, when there is enough public outcry to demand that the government take action.
“I’m sorry to say that it will (probably) take some kind of disaster to cause a change in regulations,” Schmidt said.
