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Every genuine image, song, and sentence is intrinsically from someone, for someone. They all bear the fingerprints of a self. When AI-powered software forges a convincing replica of any of those rational acts, it falsely signals the presence of a person, like planting fake fingerprints at a crime scene. As a result, the audience is left questioning the authenticity of the world around them.
Something similar happens with any relationship role that AI chatbots might fill. They have been marketed to play the roles of friends, idealized romantic partners, and deceased loved ones. Wherever people feel emotional voids, as is increasingly common, chatbots can exploit them. For children who are still developing their ability to relate to others, the risk is even more severe.
It is not out of the realm of possibility that chatbots could be marketed as preferred versions of living loved ones, or as invented children that never came to be in the first place. There is a financial incentive to simulate these roles, whatever it takes to grab the user’s attention and keep it.
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