Eric Schmidt said the emotionally and physically "perfect" AI girlfriend may lead young male users to become obsessed with the chatbot.

People in 2024 aren’t just swiping right and left on online dating apps — some are crafting their perfect AI match and entering relationships with chatbots.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO, recently shared his concerns about young men creating AI romantic partners and said he believes that AI dating will actually increase loneliness.

“This is a good example of an unexpected problem of existing technology,” Schmidt said in a conversation about AI dangers and regulation on “The Prof G Show” with Scott Galloway released Sunday.

Schmidt said an emotionally and physically “perfect” AI girlfriendcould create a scenario in which a younger male becomes obsessed and allows the AI to take over their thinking.

“That kind of obsession is possible,” Schmidt said in the interview. “Especially for people who are not fully formed.”

  • intensely_human@lemm.eeEnglish
    20·
    20 hours ago

    Given the chance to have your sexual and emotional fantasies fulfilled in a satisfying way, many many people will take it.

    Obviously. But I haven’t yet seen anything from an AI that could fulfill either.

    • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      15 hours ago

      You’re looking at the AI equivalent of where stop frame animation was in 1930. It’s a few years old and rudimentary. Give it 80 years. That’s the time frame I was talking about.

      • intensely_human@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        12 hours ago

        50 years ago people saw the advancement of cars and assumed we’d have flying cars by now. Nobody predicted computers would be as ubiquitous as they are. The best method we have of drying clothes is still blowing warm air through them thousands of years later. Advancement isn’t guaranteed.

    • nyan@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      6·
      18 hours ago

      Depends on how low your standards are. I mean, there were [a small number of] people who convinced themselves that the 1960s chatbot ELIZA was a person with feelings, and the bots have only become more convincing since then. I can certainly see the modern ones fulfilling the emotional needs of someone who really, really wants to believe they’re speaking to a sapient being who cares about them, and as for the other, well, some people have pretty low sex drives or find phone sex fulfilling enough (at least for a time).