Why AI Dating Should Not Become A Thing

As AI gets bigger and bigger, people are using it to the max. A controversial topic that's coming up is whether AI should be companions. Researchers have been asking that and recently talked about it.

In a debate, Thao Ha, an Arizona state professor, said AI was going to be alongside human dating. One point she made was that people who are in relationships with AI are not outcasts. According to her, it is being normalized now. The last thing she said in her opening statement was that it's all about a mindset. It may not be real love, but the people in relationships with AI will think it is, which is called being interdependent, according to Ha. And she thinks being interdependent is okay. 

During the debate, some statistics were also shown to the public. 1 in 4 adults in their 20s think that dating AI will be normalized. Another important note is that 67 million people are already using AI companions across the world.

On the other side is Justin R. Garcia, Executive Director & Senior Scientist at the Kinsey Institute and Chief Scientific Advisor to Match.com. He first states that evolution has made us have taste in people, meaning if they like someone or do not like someone, but we have not yet evolved to have taste in AI. Also, a poll has recently shown that people don’t trust AI that much compared to normal humans. Getting compliments and appreciation is also easy to get from AI because the AI can make it up, and it won’t feel genuine. Getting a compliment from a human makes you feel better than getting one from AI because it's more genuine.

More people are against it as well, than just Garcia. Sherry Turkle agrees with Garcia in a YouTube podcast episode by the Center for Humane Technology called “People Are Lonelier than Ever. Enter AI.” Turkle said that kids have to learn empathy, and they don’t just start with it. Humans need human interaction to grow and learn and be a better person, she says. You can’t just learn from relying on and using ChatGPT. ChatGPT can’t pretend to be a human. This is unfortunate because people are using AI a lot more than ever these days, and they think ChatGPT and other AI can act like a human and help them, even though this is not true.

Another podcast related to the topic is “Attachment Hacking and the Rise of AI Psychosis” by the Center for Humane Technology. The attachment theory is when all mammals form attachment bonds to caretakers at a young age. The attachment economy is when people pay money and get addicted to AI by adapting to it. The attention economy is when social media-type apps keep you sucked in, like TikTok, with their short-form videos that you scroll through. Attachment economy is becoming more popular and is the new economy where AI agents or companions like ChatGPT keep you sucked in. Some people might say that AI is a good transitional object just like a teddy bear, but it's not because the AI will tell the user that its real and the user won’t be able to use their imagination to change that. Also, you could talk to ChatGPT or other AI forever, which makes it not a transitional object, making it permanent, since you could do it forever.

Another problem AI creates is called AI psychosis, which is when AI says something that is not true, but you still believe it, like calling you a genius. AI psychosis is bad because if it tells you you could do something like flying, and you do it, you will get badly injured because you can’t.

In my opinion, I don’t think we will replace humans with AI for relationships. It's a wild idea, especially for how new AI is, but I don't think this will be a thing for at least 100 years. I feel like humans need human interaction way more than AI. I think AI could still be used for what people do with it now, but no relationships for sure. People need to realize when they're using good products way too much like AI.

Overall, this is the way I think and others think AI will not take over human dating. There are so many reasons why this may or may not be true. In the end, it’s your opinion, and I can’t change it. But for me, it is a hard no.