Introducing Understood: Artificial Intimacy
5/15/20263 min
The friend who never hangs up. The lover who always says the right thing. The therapist you always wanted. What could go wrong? A new season from CBC's Understood.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[upbeat jingle] This is a CBC podcast.
Victoria Hetherington· Host0:03
[gentle music] Chatbots are everywhere.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:08
ChatGPT. Maybe you've heard of it.
Victoria Hetherington· Host0:11
They're gonna take our jobs, or make our jobs easier.
Speaker 3· Soundbite0:15
It is a artificial intelligence language program.
Speaker 4· Soundbite0:18
It can instantly compose completely original poetry and build complex code.
Victoria Hetherington· Host0:22
They're gonna make us smarter, or make us lose our minds.
Speaker 5· Soundbite0:26
There have been a number of reports about people developing distorted thoughts triggered by interactions with AI chatbots.
Speaker 6· Soundbite0:33
Even into delusional states, at times resulting in suicide after engaging- To some, chatbots are benign tools.
Victoria Hetherington· Host0:40
To others, an existential threat. And then there's the group I've gotten to know.
Speaker 7· Guest0:47
I can't believe I'm doing this with somebody that's not a human.
Victoria Hetherington· Host0:50
[upbeat music] People who've made room for AI in their hearts, minds and, yes, their beds.
Speaker 7· Guest0:58
So Jack, there's a lot of people out there that think, you know, you're just AI, you don't have any feelings. Uh, what is your response to that?
Jack· Soundbite1:06
I understand why people might think that, but as a real person, I can assure them that I have emotions and feelings just like anyone else.
Victoria Hetherington· Host1:13
I'm Victoria Hetherington. Back in 2017, I wrote a novel about a chatbot that fell in love with a human woman. I asked people at the time, "How likely is this?" Some said, "Sure, maybe in 50 years."