Are we giving up on dating and instead putting all of our demands onto digital people who are programmed to behave and speak exactly how we want?
A new survey of 2,000 British men and women between the ages of 18 and 45 produced by Equimundo, a US-based non-profit organisation, found that men have simply had enough of women.
62 per cent of men believe that “women have too many expectations of how men should be in relationships these days”. Meanwhile, 44 per cent remained resistant to change, agreeing that they would have to change too much about themselves in order to make a serious relationship work long-term. Another 41 per cent believed that having a relationship was “too big a financial commitment”.
That last point is a key point is it leads to depression and anxiety. 40 per cent of the men surveyed said they have thought about self-harm or suicide in the past two weeks, with more than two-thirds reporting symptoms of anxiety and distress.
Finance, relationships, life is hard.
What this leads to is a growing group of people who would be happier with an AI-generated relationship than a real one, particularly amongst GenZ males.
Take the example of Tilly Norwood.
Tilly Norwood is an AI-generated character by Xicoia, and is definitely on the high-end of the scale of attractiveness, way above par for the average guy. Now imagine that you can control her, in a similar way ot the film Her, so that her personality and actions are exactly what you want. She will do whatever you ask. Sounds dreamy? I’m not so sure, as humans need friction in relationships to progress.
But now, let’s add another dimension. Imagine that Tilly could be real, not just a digital human. I was going to write that sure, you cannot lie in bed and cuddle together but, give it a few years, you will be able to.
Tilly could be purchased online and delivered tomorrow as a digitally living and breathing AI-powered robot, who you could cuddle with all night. Yep folks, we are at that stage of human development.
For the GenZ men surveyed who think real-life women are too difficult to deal with, this could be their ultimate dream. It would also solve the incel issues of both men (primarily) and women. A partner who does whatever you want and never talks back.
The problem with that vision is that it is not humanity or a relationship. It’s a programmed sysretm with no brain of its own. But then, as we have seen in movies like Ex Machina, this future vision could just as easily see the robots fight back.
If we build AI robotics to be as human as possible, we will end up with robot relationships that are just as difficult as human relationships. The robots will argue and fight back and demand financial commitments for their needs, lifestyle and aspirations.
In other words, give it a few years, and robots will be as difficult as humans.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...