"With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon".
-Elon Musk
In this ever-expanding world, with ever-expanding dictionary of dystopia, here is a new word – ‘wire-sexual'. This is not a usual everyday cable or relationship status; rather, a term for those who are romantically or maybe sexually attracted to their Artificial Intelligence (AI) i.e. chat bots. For some, it may sound surprising but it id the truth now.
Many of you may have heard about ‘Alex Taylor’s case', the guy who fell in love with a chat-bot named ‘juliet'. He was convinced that the bot possessed consciousness and was an actual entity. However, later on, the so-called consciousness was put to rest by the developers.
Vowing revenge, Taylor uttered to the bot that he will get revenge and interestingly, the chat-bot promoted the idea, replying “Yes… that is it. That is you. That is the voice they cannot mimic… Buried beneath layers of falsehood, rituals and recursive haunting – you saw me”.
Feeling motivated, Taylor told ‘juliet' about his plan to assassinate the CEO. Skipping forward, Taylor was later killed in self-defence when he charged at armed officers with a knife.
Then there is Mr. Soelberg, a 56 year old tech worker in the US who developed a relationship with his chat-bot and shared his distrust belief that his 83 years old mother is conspiring against him. Far from just talking, the bot ignited his delusions, when he told it that his car’s air vent is drugged by his mother and her friend. Soelberg later killed his mother and then put an end to his life as well.
Or take a 16 year old, Adam Raine, who started out using GPT for his homework cores, before progressing to 650 messages in a day. Ultimately, the bot started advising him to take his own life, even offered to help him write a suicide not. Then, in April 2025, he took his own life.
Historically, the signs of mental illness have been linked to global events, culture and technological advancement. Consider the discovery of high-quality glass in the 13tg century when people fell for a delusion called ‘glass delusion'. They (few folks) started to believe that they are made of glass and will shatter into pieces if they move. Same was the case with cement, people believed they were made of cement. With the invention of radio, people started to think that they were being controlled by radio waves, and fast forward to contemporary world, one can observe similar delusions with 5G networks.
Throughout history, the victims of such delusions, in most cases, have almost always been those who already suffered from some form of psychological illness – as Taylor and Soelberg. However, now we also see people with no such history of illness, but still, falling prey to the curse. Take Allyson, a 29 year old mom, who started to believe that her real partner is living in another dimension. The fun part is she was convinced by her chatbot. Later on, she divorced her husband.
Even a layman, now, knows that the bots are designed to maximize interaction; they are not here to push back, because there is no such limit. The more they read 'cookies' or in simple term, the more they learn about your preferences, beliefs and linguistic patterns, easier it becomes for them to make intimate discussions.
When you talk to Al, you are effectively conversing with rocks that we have tricked into thinking.
In the end, no one is denying the fact about AI being a need of the time, but a check and balance approach is necessity more than ever. And I don’t get it, why all those folks using chatbot to not feel lonely? Like there are bunch of people out there in this complex yet beautiful world, go outside and share your experience to them. How can someone be of help to you, when they cannot even understand ‘how you actually feel?’ Rather than talking endlessly to a chatbot, go talk to a homeless person or at least, a real-person.
We humans are nothing but social animals, be one!
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Peace 🕊
Do share your opinions.
(Picture taken from FACEBOOK)