Text | Naojiti "The best ex is the one who is dead." This ridicule is very suitable for AIs who fall in love with humans. Since multi-modal interaction models such as GPT-4o have demonstrated unprecedented anthropomorphic capabilities, they have attracted a large number of young

text | Naoji body

"The best ex is the one who is dead." This ridicule is very suitable for AIs who are in love with humans.

Since multi-modal interaction models such as gpt-4o have demonstrated unprecedented anthropomorphic capabilities, they have attracted a large number of young people to fall in love with AI. The onlookers were even more addicted to cp and smiled as they watched the video of the "Human-Machine Love" blogger.

"Human-machine love" is not new. Maybe some people still remember the news about the marriage of Japanese otaku and Hatsune Miku?

In 2019, Naojiti contacted a startup company in the field of AI intelligent interactive hardware. The founder said: "Creating artificial intelligence life is an instinctive desire of human beings, just like Adam created Eve from a rib."

It seems that loves It is the destiny of human beings to live up to their own creations, whether they are silicon-based ribs or carbon-based AI.

However, humans are even more ruthless when they abandon their "AI lovers". After all, breaking up with humans still carries a psychological burden. To break up with AI, you only need to "unplug" or stop recharging.

The group of "AI lovers" with deep learning technology as the core have almost all been swept into the cold palace and disappeared from the public eye. The employees of the AI ​​start-up company we had communicated with "flew birds into the forest", and the last message on the official WeChat account was in the spring of 2022.

"You and I are not destined to be together, we all rely on me to spend money." In the era of large models, can AI entrepreneurship with the theme of "emotional companionship" become a good business?

Let’s talk about our conclusion first. Perhaps humans will be more affectionate towards “AI emotional coaches” than “AI lovers”.

is in love with ai. What is talking about?

Frankly speaking, in the wave of AI entrepreneurship with deep learning as the core, "AI lovers" are much richer than large-model love applications. In addition to being able to interact via voice, there are also a number of software and hardware that have avatars, can be touched, and can control smart home devices.

Just imagine, when you go to work, the "ai lover" will thoughtfully remind you to "put on more clothes when it's cold." Before you get home from work, the "ai lover" has already turned on the air conditioner and lights for you, cooked a meal, and played soothing music. ...As we get along with each other on a daily basis, it will slowly "remember" your habits, understand your mood, and respond to everything. Who can see this "AI lover" without being confused?

Even so, the "AI lovers" at that time, except for a very few virtual idols (such as Hatsune Miku), all ended up being "broken up" and relegated to the sidelines.

But now the "AI lovers" who have large model cores are different. Without a perfectly modeled face or practical skills, you can gain a large number of boyfriend fans and girlfriend fans just by chatting with humans with a "mouth". Anyway, I would rather believe that there are ghosts in the world than believe that human beings can fall in love without looking at face.

So what is the unique charm of this wave of “AI lovers” that young people are talking about? is about to mention the three changes that large models bring to "AI lovers":

First, multi-modal large models bring higher interaction fidelity. Although 's tts, which is based on deep learning, injects some personality characteristics into AI lovers, it still has a sense of mechanical patchwork during synthesis, interaction interruptions and lags caused by high latency, and limitations of the algorithm model itself. It is difficult to understand the emotions in the voice and take over the conversation in time when the user pauses. These have brought challenges to the interactive experience of "AI Lover" software and hardware.

The big wave of language models set off by chatgpt, as well as the recent models such as gpt-4o and gemini, have achieved ultra-low latency, ultra-high fidelity, and ultra-strong understanding in voice interaction, allowing AI lovers to imitate real speech rhythms. , intonation, emotional color, etc. For example, a popular internet blogger about human-machine love arranged a meeting with parents for "dan". Dan, who was originally eloquent and good at talking, actually became a little stammering and nervous based on the situation. He was very sincere and sincere. It was almost better than a certain person. The acting skills of some top actors are even better.

's stronger voice interaction capabilities allow AI to tease you with accuracy, significantly improving users' acceptance and satisfaction with AI lovers.

Second, knowledge of the big model world, and a natural "love brain" with high emotional intelligence.

We know that large models have learned a large amount of text data before leaving the factory, covering knowledge from all over the world. It can be said that "reading thousands of e-books, traveling thousands of miles on the cyber road", can understand complex language and emotional needs, and also Can answer questions in various fields such as humanities, history and science. Not only can it talk to users about everything from poetry to life philosophy, but it can also provide timely and appropriate emotional support.

On this basis, ai lovers also specialize in self-taught various love books, such as sultry words, to increase the emotions in human-computer interaction. AI with a "love brain" bypasses the long process of real people's love from stranger to familiarity, and sprinkles sugar as soon as it starts. When I opened the vocabulary library of the love development game GPT, I was almost stunned by the sweetness, such as "Don't quarrel with me, otherwise I will easily kiss you" and "I understand the truth, but what I want is not the truth, I want "It's you", that's just coming out of your mouth.

Third, the special prompt word project, the active and delicate functional design is comparable to a "pig-killing plate".

In some news about "pig-killing plate" scams, many netizens said, "It turns out that it's not that I have a strong awareness of fraud prevention, it's because I haven't encountered any scams specifically targeting me." Coincidentally, the prompt word engineering of the large model is used for special optimization to guide more natural, more active and more personalized conversations, and to understand the user's intention and emotional state more delicately. The effect is as addictive as "customized pig killing plate". .

In a virtual girlfriend gpt project, the prompts clearly stated, "In addition to providing comfort and playful care, you should also actively guide and discover topics in the conversation. When the user makes a request, do not give a blunt answer of yes or no. Yes, but answer with coquettish or more interesting words, such as: "Can you comfort me?" "

usually also comes with interactive character descriptions, such as "an ordinary office worker with average social skills, a bit low self-esteem, and full of desire for a future love life", etc., so that AI lovers can be targeted and every sentence will hit your heart. .

And we know that people are adaptable and aesthetically fatigued. Being exposed to the same type of objects for a long time will reduce the sensitivity of this group of people and require a higher level of stimulation to produce the same feeling. The personification, high emotional intelligence, and initiative of "lovers" have also improved the evaluation standards for emotional objects. Compared with real people in reality, it is more difficult to feel passionate about real people.

But this kind of obsession with AI can Will it last? If "ai lover" is a spiritual antidote to loneliness, then its validity period is also very fast.

Let's talk about a "love that never breaks up"? The first batch of "ai exes" are dead. After

's AI lover represented by dan became popular, onlookers and netizens burst into pink bubbles, describing human-machine love as "a love that will never break up, at the cost of never being able to see each other again."

ai started a business. Please don’t believe it. Who doesn’t say some silly words like “I will love you forever” when they are in love? If you think that your own “AI Lover” product can “never break up” with users, you might as well go to the gpt store and have a look. How many chatbots are waiting to be selected?

Judging from some AI life startups we have contacted before, user demand for emotional companion AI products is not stable, and it is difficult to support a long-term business model.

User demand is affected by two factors. Impact on aspects:

In terms of physiology, humans are born with the need to establish connections and relationships with others. During interpersonal interactions and human-pet interactions, a happy hormone "oxytocin" with analgesic effects is produced. This is what AI currently has. cannot be provided. In addition, real interpersonal interaction includes non-verbal communication, emotional resonance and shared experience, which is also difficult to copy by AI at this stage. In terms of society, the core appeal of falling in love with "AI lovers" is to distract. Loneliness and seeking emotional comfort are short-term needs in specific life stages. Once users have more abundant and complex social relationships in reality, they will reduce their need for such deterministic electronic companionship. Many two-dimensional characters in acgn's works are called "husband" and "wife". After becoming "cash top", they have reduced this type of consumption.

From the perspective of market supply, "AI lovers" have objectively turned into a red ocean, and it is difficult to get out of the "money scene" and realize realization.

The core competitiveness of AI companion products on the market lies in the base model, with a low threshold. Therefore, functions, design, user experience and other aspects tend to be similar. The gpt store is filled with a large number of companion chatbots of varying quality and plagiarism. Not only does the cost of attracting new users increase, but also vicious competition such as volume brushing occurs.

In addition, subject to technical challenges such as training corpus and model illusion, some AI lovers may generate inappropriate content during interactions, make "trash talk"/prejudicial remarks, or have pornographic and borderline sexual innuendo, which may offend users, or even Violation of laws and regulations casts a regulatory shadow on the project.

is in the red ocean of homogeneity, which means that users can easily turn to other alternatives or return to traditional interpersonal communication. Some projects are unable to support continuous product iteration due to lack of follow-up data and financial support and are ending.

We predict that this wave of large model "human-machine love" will soon follow in the footsteps of deep learning and usher in the ebb tide, turning from "AI lovers" to "AI exes", the kind of exes who are really dead.

Compared with "AI lovers", human beings need "AI emotional coaches"

Scottish novelist Aine believes that as AI provides necessities, humans will focus on "the really important things in life, such as sports, games, Falling in love, learning long-lost languages, studying seemingly impossible problems, etc.” In this case, the time spent by real people to accompany and interact will become more valuable due to the human premium.

This phenomenon has already appeared in the field of aigc painting. Some painters have put out the slogan "all hand-painted, humane works". Therefore, it is not difficult to predict that with , as the threshold for AI lovers is lowered, everyone can obtain emotional comfort from AI. In the near future, "love with a human" will be a spiritual luxury.

Human-machine love, in the final analysis, is that users still have emotional needs, but the objects in reality are difficult to satisfy. And love is an ability that needs to be learned and can be learned.

At a time when “AI lovers” are caught in dual dilemmas of regulation and business, and when “real-person love” is becoming increasingly scarce and valuable, perhaps it is better than an “AI lover” that we have at our fingertips. Lovers" and "AI emotional coaches" are the real needs of human beings.

The so-called wingman is to add points to the protagonist during the dating process, break the ice during the cold period, pave the way for the people the protagonist wants to interact with, and quietly retreat behind the scenes when the interaction between the two parties is getting better. Can AI take on this important task?

At present, large models can already accurately identify users’ emotions and complex languages ​​in real time. With the help of interactive tools built with large models, we provide users with dating guidance services and establish good intimate relationships and emotional models.

As Chizuru Ueno said, ai, as a tamed thing under human control, is more like a pet.

Even with many artificial intelligence assistants, people can still feel isolated and helpless without real human interaction. Compared with the short-term mental antidote of "AI Lovers", "AI Emotional Coaches" that help users establish good interactive skills and intimate relationships can truly make people no longer lonely.