Language Models & Sex Dolls: A Self-Reflection or Real Love Story?
Lately, I’ve been trying to understand AI and how to use it in my writing more effectively, only to notice that the more I learn about large language models or LLMs, the more I realize it’s basically a sex doll.
It used to be that Artificial Intelligence was some scary far-off thing in the future. Now, with technology like ChatGPT, the threat of cyber-attacks (via original, copyright-able literary works) is making headlines faster than any of Pete Davidson’s hot new flavor of the week and is just as perplexing!
LLMs write so convincingly that one might wonder if someone is prowling behind that Great and Powerful Oz’s curtain (or computer screen). But is using LLMs the same as having a relationship with a sex doll? I think so!
I can see the appeal. People have always loved the next new and improved thing — like the iconic scene from When Harry Met Sally, we all want what she’s having — including the latest and greatest innovations like humanistic programs and life-like companionship.
These tech marvels (language models and sex dolls) are about emulating the human experience. However, though they both might mimic humans, they aren’t the real deal.
Think of ChatGPT as an overzealous parrot, squawking out a mind-blowing amount of data in a realistic and humanistic way. But unlike our real fine feathered friends, their squawks lack real life. They’re regurgitators, an echo of whatever you teach it. They don’t have a pulse or a creative brain and lack all the lived experience that makes us, us.
Just like a copycatting computer-generated bird, a sex doll, no matter how anatomically correct, is severely lacking. And when it comes to a real connection, those lacks are detrimental to a relationship and a deep bond. Dolls cannot share a laugh or stolen glance, and they don’t get butterflies — all those things that drive every Nicholas Sparks novel.
And just like a sex doll can fulfill some physical needs (I assume it’s got all the right holes and whatnot), an LLM can also put out — rapidly spitting out emails or erecting screenplay plot structures in the bat of an eye.
However, neither one has that particular bit of magic, that special something-something, that makes us feel and fall in love–all those intense, chaotic, engrossing moments that elevate our existence. Nope. They’re all hardware, no heart. All silicone, no soul.
A sex doll may momentarily make someone feel part of coupledom, and a rapid-responding chatbot and its deluge of data can take the bar exam (and score higher than you). Still, we’ve got to remember they are just things, sidekicks. They were made to assist us, not play the understudy for real human connection or originality.
We’ve got to realize these new-fangled machines are tools, plain and simple. However high-tech and super-cool, they are limited.
It’s not a love note regurgitated by AI that means something to you. And it’s not the room-temperature rubber hand anyone wants to hold during a Rom-Com or grasp while running through the rain during a thunderstorm. We crave the real deal and need that human component to realize our humanity.
