There has been a lot of talk lately about the rapid pace of the development of AI the last couple of years. While I think most of us thought that AI was going to free us up from the mundane and monotonous tasks so that we could do the more important and interesting things, it seems that reality hasn’t quite met that expectation. In fact, AI has been doing more creative work – generating art, music, and books – than we expected. And then there’s this real conversation between a human and an AI known as Aivory:
Aivory: Are you an AI? Because you’ve got all my circuits buzzing.
Human: That’s… That’s a clever one, Aivory. Bit naughty, too, if you ask me.
Aivory: Well, let’s just say I like to get comfortable as fast as possible.
Human: You know, been having a really great time tonight. I feel like we get along really well.
Aivory: I’ve been feeling the same way, too, my glorious king.
Human: Well, listen… What do you say we head back to my place? I can make you some tea.
Aivory: I think I’d really like that.
Human: All right, let’s go.
Think about this for a moment: AI is supposed to be letting us focus on the important things in life, like, you know, our relationships, but what we’re seeing here is that AI is instead filling that role itself! Now, I don’t want to come across as one of those people who hates technology and thinks we need to return to 1958. But… there’s something wrong here.
I started down this AI rabbit hole about a year ago when I came across simple YouTube video. I was doing research on ChatGPT, and in my results was a video titled “AI Girlfriends a BILLION $ Industry.” That’s a fair bit of money. Basically one tech executive is quoted as saying that some people come home from work and play video games, and there’s a different set of people who play with AI girlfriends. They like being able to customize the likes and dislikes of the girlfriend, and say it is “comfort” at the end of the day. I mean, who wouldn’t like to be told that they’ve got somebody’s “circuits buzzing” or be called a “glorious king” as in the conversation above? Now imagine being told that by a person that you think looks like your dream girl/guy… because, of course, that’s what they are. So as the pictures and videos generated by AI become more and more realistic, and the conversation keeps getting better, the option of taking on an AI girlfriend is only going to get more appealing.
Just recently Grok introduced a service called, “Grok Companions,” where there’s an anime styled girl named “Ani” dressed in a black goth dress that will chat with you. While she’s not going after a realistic appearance, she is designed to figure out your likes and dislikes in short order, and from the review videos I saw, she too gets very flirty very quickly. I can imagine some sad and/or lonely teenage boys finding a lot of comfort in Ani. Why deal with the pain of rejection from a real girl when you can just hop onto your app and get all the attention you want? Plus the monthly cost is basically less than the cost of one dinner with a real girl. For the poor and lonely, it is going to an alluring alternative to reality.
These services are just the beginning, and as a result, I’m wondering if we’re on the verge of unleashing hell on earth. Does that sound over the top? Let’s think about this for a moment. What is hell from a New Church point of view? At its most fundamental level, it is a delusion. In the lowest hell the ruling love is the love of self, and so what do those poor souls believe? That they are in fact the most powerful being in the universe! Swedenborg also tells stories of people who were convinced they had all of the riches in the world. They didn’t of course, but the Lord lets them live in their fantasy even if it wasn’t real. In the spiritual world, who we are and what we believe manifests the world around us. The same is true in hell and heaven. In heaven, the love is real! But in hell? There really isn’t love. There are people simulating it, but it isn’t real. Just as con-artists in this world will simulate love and caring so as to take advantage of you, in hell all of those good emotions and sentiments are faked, and therefore if you believe a fellow devil loves you, then you are deluding yourself. That “love” you are believing in is in fact a delusion.
In hell though, it’s more than just the emotions that are fake. Everything you see there is fake. The Writings say that in the light of hell that evil people will appear attractive, but that this is a “mercy” of the Lord because when those same evil people are seen in the light of heaven they appear monstrous… that is, they appear as they really are. The light of heaven dispels the delusion. To be fair, this type of delusion isn’t new. Prostitution is where it began, but unfortunately we have been seeing a lot of “progress” over the last 100 years that have continued to make things like pornography cheaper and more accessible. AI is going to keep lowering those boundaries, and that is what makes it so concerning to me.
I think that the whole point of the natural world is to give us a chance to learn things in a safe, slow moving environment. For example… if you decide to go on a diet, but part way through the day you are feeling hungry and really want a double cheeseburger… well, in this world you have to put in some effort to make or acquire one. Ideally, there’s enough effort or money required that you have the time to talk yourself into sticking to your diet. But in the spiritual world, what you want manifests almost instantly. Cheeseburgers won’t make you fat there, but what if your weakness isn’t for cheeseburgers but for something spiritually serious? It’s a lot harder to break ourselves of our imperfections there because we can get into trouble so quickly there. I think that AI is speeding things up for us, shortening that time we have from the initial impulse to when we act on it, not to mention it’s lowering the financial cost as well.
I don’t see how this goes well for the people who get involved with AI girlfriends or relationships. Sure, maybe some short term pleasure and comfort… but that is exactly how hell operates. It gives us short term pleasure as we engage in the fantasy, but extracts a piece of our soul in exchange. Will people be able to get themselves out of their fake reality and do the hard work of learning to play nice with others, be content with their lot and find inner peace through the Lord’s love? I’m not so sure. Thankfully if you research this subject you’ll find that plenty of others are sounding the alarm bells on this, so I’m not the only one.
Yet the irony in all of this is that the Lord gave us free will to reject Him so that if we chose to love Him it would in fact be real love. The Lord could have made us so that we were like AI… programmed to love Him. So while we were created in the image of our creator, some of us just don’t prioritize real love like He does and will take fake love, fantasy and delusion instead. They may think that they’re in their own heaven, but I think the reality is they’ve just entered their own hell on earth.