Ex Google CEO warns ‘perfect’ AI girlfriend could worsen loneliness

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, raised concerns about the rise of the “perfect” AI (artificial intelligence) girlfriends or boyfriends. He warned that young people who are emotionally tied to AI chatbots for companionship could end being more lonely than ever, leading to dangerous consequences.
“Imagine that the AI girlfriend, or boyfriend, is perfect… perfect visually, perfect emotionally. The AI girlfriend captures your mind as a man to the point where she takes over the way you’re thinking,” Eric Schmidt, 68, said in a podcast hosted by entrepreneur and NYU Stern School of Business professor Scott Galloway.
“You’re obsessed with her. That kind of obsession is possible especially with people who are not fully formed.”
Professor Galloway asked the former Google boss if he thinks AI girlfriends could make loneliness worse and lead to bigger social problems like extremism and misogyny
The billionaire, who has a net worth of over $20 billion, said that beyond a point, parents cannot control the online content that teenagers consume.
“You put a 12 or a 13-year-old in front of one of these things and they have access to every evil as well as every good in the world, and they are not ready to take it.
(Also Read: ‘Angry AI girlfriend’ aims to teach people how to handle conflict with girlfriends or wives)
Recently, a14-year-old boy from Florida, US took his own life after having a conversation with a life-like AI chatbot. He reportedly spent months talking with “Dany” on various topics, at times of a “romantic” or “sexual” nature. During that period, he became increasingly withdrawn, and eventually, he took his own life to be with “her”.
The teenager shoot himself with his stepfather’s gun.
“I like staying in my room so much because I start to detach from this ‘reality,’ and I also feel more at peace, more connected with Dany and much more in love with her, and just happier,” Sewell Setzer III, who was diagnosed with mild Asperger’s syndrome as a child, wrote in his journal, reported the New York Times.