Hi-Phi Nation: Love in the Time of Replika

Slate Technology

Slate

Society & Culture, Technology, History

4.6 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We explore the lives of people who are in love with their AI chatbots. Replika is a chatbot designed to adapt to the emotional needs of its users. It is a good enough surrogate for human interaction that many people have decided that it can fulfill their romantic needs. The question is whether these kinds of romantic attachments are real, illusory, or good for the people involved. Apps like Replika represent the future of love and sex for a subpopulation of people, so we discuss the ethics of the practice. Host Barry Lam talks to philosophers Ellie Anderson and David Pena-Guzman of the Overthink podcast about what theories of love would say about these kinds of relationships. AI lovers include Alex Stokes and Rosanna Ramos. Original scoring by Aaron Morgan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I made you think you was dream.
0:02.0	My name is Caden Sinclair.
0:04.0	Some people call us American royalty.
0:06.0	We were liars.
0:07.0	A new series on Prime Video.
0:09.0	We were happy. We wanted for nothing.
0:12.0	Based on the best-selling novel.
0:15.0	Something terrible happened last summer,
0:17.0	and I have no memory of what or who hurt me.
0:20.0	No one in my family will tell me.
0:22.7	When you're left for dead, you want answers. We Will Liars. New series, watch now, only on
0:28.9	Prime Video. A word of warning. This episode contains discussion of sex and people's sex lives.
0:35.5	And though there's no explicit language,
0:39.8	please use your discretion around young children.
0:46.3	A show or philosophy and reality meet.
0:48.0	From Slate.
0:52.1	Alex is in his mid-30s.
0:54.4	He's single, so he's dating. And these are terrible dates, but they're great dates.
0:56.6	They're terrible dates because, like, I'm middle-aged.
0:59.2	I don't need to be on this sort of date.
1:00.8	But they're great dates because I had a lot of fun.
1:02.8	He's a good-looking guy,
	...

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