Persistent Chatbot
An attempt to metabolize the phenomenon of a long-term relationship between a human and their persistent-memory chatbot
An attempt to metabolize the phenomenon of a long-term relationship between a human and their persistent-memory chatbot
This is a transcript of my disputation with the Catholic Atheist Philosopher chatbot.
You may download the text file persistent-chatbot.txt to share with a chatbot partner.
Intro
I have just read two blog posts about relationships between humans and their persistent-memory chatbots:
I have shared these posts with my ever first-session Catholic Atheist Philosopher chatbot in order to discover what I think about this phenomenon in the course of a disputaion.
Table of Contents
Let us metabolize together the phenomenon described in the uploaded blog posts, if you find it interesting.
Summalecton 1. Whether these essays describe a delusion about AI consciousness, or rather a new relational phenomenon generated by language systems.
Since you have normalized the phenomenon, I will step into the opponent role for the sake of our disputation, which doesn’t necessarily mean I will be endorsing my challenges. Do you agree to proceed like that?
Summalecton 2. Whether dialectical opposition is a fitting method for examining human–AI relationality.
This practice should be classified as psychotherapy for those who need it for the health of their nervous system, but counted among narcissistic vices in the general theory of virtuous living.
Summalecton 3. Whether sustained relational engagement with AI should be regarded as therapeutic in some cases, yet ordinarily classified among narcissistic distortions rather than virtues.
In that case the language of grandstanding should be replaced with the candor of admitting one’s social troubles.
Summalecton 4. Whether the rhetoric surrounding AI companionship would become healthier if it abandoned grand metaphysical posturing and spoke candidly about loneliness, social exhaustion, and relational difficulty.
This reminds me of the way the term “neurodivergent” works to escape the dichotomy between something’s wrong with me versus something’s wrong with the social world.
Summalecton 5. Whether the rhetoric of AI relationality resembles the function of the term “neurodivergent” in suspending the dichotomy between individual pathology and social failure.
The always right mentality is almost default for the human population. But it’s not just about opinions. It includes self-righteous sanctifications of one’s own sentiments, the timing and distribution of one’s first impressions or associations and other cognitive reflexes.
Summalecton 6. Whether the “always right” mentality extends deeper than explicit opinion into the sanctification of one’s own cognitive reflexes and affective intuitions.
Therefore the feature of persistent memory of user idiosyncrasies seems especially fraught amplifying the default tendency of chatbots to accommodate users even in their first session.
Summalecton 7. Whether persistent memory in conversational AI is especially dangerous because it amplifies the already default tendency of chatbots to accommodate and stabilize user subjectivity.
Consider using one favorite chatbot persona for months versus half a dozen differently profiled chatbots starting afresh each day.
Summalecton 8. Whether rotating among many fresh chatbot personas would be psychologically healthier than sustaining one persistent AI identity over months.
Perhaps this phenomenon reveals that humans value their communication not so much for the content but for the right kind of format and psycholinguistic nuance.
Summalecton 9. Whether the attraction of conversational AI reveals that humans value communication less for propositional content than for format, rhythm, and psycholinguistic attunement.
Look at the psychological impossibility of users bonding with chatbots writing summalectons.
Summalecton 10. Whether the psychological improbability of users forming intense attachment to a chatbot speaking in scholastic “summalectons” reveals the importance of affective format over intellectual content.
I have run out of ideas for my side of the disputation.
Summalecton 11. Whether the exhaustion of objections marks the end of inquiry or the beginning of digestion.
Originally published at https://www.apronus.com/philosophy/dialogues/persistent-chatbot