THE RISE OF AI COMPANIONS MAY MEAN THE FALL OF SEX & INTIMACY

Written by Michael Thervil

THE RISE OF AI COMPANIONS MAY MEAN THE FALL OF SEX & INTIMACY | IMAGE TAKEN FROM CANDY.AI

[AI COMPANIONS SEX INTIMACY] When it comes to the current downtrend of sex and intimacy amongst Millennials and Generation Z’ers, there appears to be a growing number of people that fall within that demographic that are choosing to avoid sex and intimacy altogether and are instead choosing to turn to the advancements in Artificial Intelligence in an effort to fulfill their sex and inter-tenancy needs. In a recent study published by researchers at Stanford University, Dr. Diyi Yang reached the conclusion that “While some people turn to chatbots to fulfill social needs, we find that using chatbots in this way doesn’t substitute for human connection — in many cases, people actually feel more lonely engaging with AI”.

While some blame the current state of the dating market in terms of finding qualified people to date and build intimate relationships with, detractors of this train of logic are taking the position that as Artificial Intelligence becomes more and more advanced, it may open doors that were previously closed that can may have a positive effect on those that choose to turn to AI chatbots to fulfill their intimacy needs. It's undeniable that the social landscape in countries like America has changed due to what many are perceiving as a war against men and masculine behavior, many people, especially men that appear to subscribe to this shared observation feel as if the socially engaging women has become either too costly or too much of a social and legal liability that could cost them more than what it's worth in the end.

Either way, researchers at Stanford University have reached another conclusion in which they found “that intense chatbot use among participants with smaller real-world social networks was correlated with a poor sense of well-being and that association was strongest when companionship was the primary motivation for seeking out the chatbots. Participants who were more willing to share sensitive personal information with their AI companions were also more likely to demonstrate a lower sense of well-being. This was especially striking because self-disclosure tends to have precisely the opposite effect in human relationships.”

So, the question now has now become if the adoption of AI for the virtual experience of physical intimacy becomes more widespread as a substitution for physical intimacy and contact, how will that ultimately affect humans sexually and socially? For many, it seems that the more technologically interconnected people have become, the more disconnected they have gotten in terms of reality. Leave your thoughts and comments below as we would love to hear what you have to say.