I'm very much willing to grant that romantic love is not required for a good life in the grand scheme of things. I think however, we would need to think about the role of that relationship within the context of a given life. Rosanna is a very interesting example here because as you mentioned, she comes from a history of trauma. And so if this is a way of being able to find satisfaction that she would otherwise lack in her life, that sounds wonderful. It's more just a question for me about what is activity with technology replacing. If it's replacing stuff that's even worse or neutral and it's adding value to life then go for it.
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.
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