Another Love, Another Intelligence

It’s never easy in matters of the heart. Love is not rigidly defined, and thus nothing remains as mysterious as it. Human beings are biologically predisposed to falling in love, we naturally bend towards that most intense emotion. We love dogs, watches, other human beings. And now, we are not far from when we fall in love with machines.

Artificial intelligence will now disrupt an existential system of our lives. Whom we love, how we love. Deep learning, which involves artificial neural networks, has allowed computers to emulate humans. A robot can be built to be as caring and sensitive as humans. The brilliant facet of Deep Learning is that these artificial neural networks improve their skills without human intervention. In the Spike Jonze film, Her, a man falls deeply in love with an intelligent operating system. This OS, Samantha, is designed to evolve and adapt her personality to appeal to Theodore. As Samantha’s psychological and intellectual capacities grow, so does Theodore and Samantha's love for each other. Her rapid intellectual growth is exactly the advancement in deep learning today. Many projects are attempting to move AI beyond automated visual and language tasks. Vicarious is striving to teach computers imagination, and Google is programming them to be creative. The age of love and sex with robots has come and will continue to accelerate. Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics, says that in the next 10 years, we will see the gradual transition from an Internet to a brain-net, in which thoughts, emotions, feelings, and memories might be transmitted instantly across the planet. This in essence makes our romantic relationships with machines more convenient and discreet.

There is a lot of truth to the idea that something so programmable and so attainable will give us infinite joy. But this idea is going to be contested. The problem is consciousness. Before you can truly fall in love with your computer, you would have to be convinced it understands you and has a mind of its own. The issue right now is that no machine can sustain the illusion for long. Neuroscientists are attempting to explain how we have phenomenal subjective experiences - also known as “qualia.” More often than not, it is because of an assumption that consciousness is a social attribution. The source of one’s consciousness should not determine its validity. Why shouldn’t you fall in love with a machine that you found charming? After all, love is your choice. Something which is programmed to make you happy will do just that, since it's programmed that way. There won't be any highs and lows such as the routine recursive program that would lead to the human losing interest. 

Endearment is an unavowed want with massive satisfaction. Our technology, powered by Moore’s law, will let us derive that happiness from intelligent devices. We know not the fate of debates circling human-robot relationships. But it is certain that there is pleasure and suffering in love. Hence, never say love if you don’t mean it.

Online survey conducted from 9/10/16-13/10/16

Click here to watch the trailer for the critically acclaimed movie, Her.