JVL, the piece from Unreality about AI porn and the prediction that people (uh, sorry, but probably mostly men) will get attached to porn characters even though they KNOW they aren't real -- that piece reminded me of the much-cited discovery from many years ago. An academic group was trying to make a "computer therapist." At that point it was just a computer where the patient would type his problems and feelings and the computer would answer with things like "How does that make you feel?" and other anodyne responses. The head was trying it with either his secretary or one of his students and after a while she asked him to leave the room while she was "talking" to her "therapist." She absolutely knew it was a computer and that the responses were programmed to be applicable to practically any situation, and also that she and the computer had no real realtionship. But she got attached to the encounters and wanted her revelations to be private, as in real therapy! Imagine what can happen with AI characters who look real and appear to be interacting in a a genuine way...
JVL, the piece from Unreality about AI porn and the prediction that people (uh, sorry, but probably mostly men) will get attached to porn characters even though they KNOW they aren't real -- that piece reminded me of the much-cited discovery from many years ago. An academic group was trying to make a "computer therapist." At that point it was just a computer where the patient would type his problems and feelings and the computer would answer with things like "How does that make you feel?" and other anodyne responses. The head was trying it with either his secretary or one of his students and after a while she asked him to leave the room while she was "talking" to her "therapist." She absolutely knew it was a computer and that the responses were programmed to be applicable to practically any situation, and also that she and the computer had no real realtionship. But she got attached to the encounters and wanted her revelations to be private, as in real therapy! Imagine what can happen with AI characters who look real and appear to be interacting in a a genuine way...
You refer to Joseph Weizenbaum and the Eliza program he programmed in 1966.