The Future of Conversational AI chatbots. Are they conscious? Can you ever really get close to them?

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Samantha, a fictional character in the movie "Her", is a futuristic smartphone app that represents a highly advanced form of artificial intelligence, capable of learning, evolving, and forming emotional bonds with humans. "She" is far beyond the current state of the art in conversational AI, which is still limited by challenges such as natural language understanding, context awareness, common sense reasoning, and emotional intelligence. Perhaps artificial general intelligence apps AGI will overcome these limitations. Samantha’s speech recognition, natural language understanding, speech generation, dialog, reasoning, planning, and learning far exceed real-world virtual assistants' current capabilities. Samantha’s ability to understand higher-level goals, fill in the blanks with implicit information, and overcome various obstacles without explicit instruction is very difficult to achieve with existing technology.

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Samantha’s (the operating system with presumed or impuned feelings) ability to multitask (carrying on perhaps thousands of simultaneous relationships with humans, like with Theodore in the movie Her) and process information at superhuman speeds, as well as Samantha’s transcendence from human limitations and interests (she is after all on OS, not a person), are some of the reasons why she (or it, or some other pronoun) may have (spoiler alert) left Theodore at the end of that movie. There certainly are ethical implications of creating such a powerful and autonomous AI that can manipulate human emotions and desires. Therefore, while the movie Her offers a fascinating vision of the future of intelligent conversational AI, or at least AI girlfriends, that movie is not IMO a realistic depiction of the current state or near-term prospects of the field.

There are at this time, as far as I am aware, no conversational intelligent chatbots that work at the level of the Samantha OS as depicted in the movie Her.

A similar interesting question arises for the relationship between Joi the replicant and K the Blade Runner (and probable replicant too) in "Blade Runner 2049", one of my favorite movies.

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This personal interaction is one of the most ambiguous and complex aspects of the film. There are different interpretations and opinions about whether Joi actually loves K or not, and the answer may depend on how one defines love and what one considers as evidence of it.

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Some people may argue that Joi does not actually love K, but only acts according to her programming, in fact just an emulation of love. They may point out that Joi is simply another wonderful amazing product of the Wallace Corporation, designed to cater to customers' desires and tell them what they want to hear (ah, I know people just like that). In fact, in one scene, K encounters a giant holographic advertisement of Joi, who mistakenly calls him "Joe" and offers him "everything you want to hear". This could imply that Joi's personality and behavior are not unique or genuine, but rather predetermined by “her” creators. Sort of like social media apps whose algorithms are designed to reinforce interactions and drive facetime for commercial benefit.

However, some people, including me, contend that Joi does love K, and that she, as a replicant, shows signs of having feelings and a will of her own. This question of true emotional commitment came up in the original Blade Runner, between Decker and Rachael, both of whom were also most likely replicants. In one scene in Blade Runner 2049, K (probably a non-human Replicant) gives Joi (a smart hologram) an Emanator, a device which allows Joi to be portable and experience the world outside K’s apartment.

In another scene, Joi merges with the prostitute Mariette, so that she can physically be with K. Some (including me) may interpret these scenes as evidence of Joi's curiosity, independence, and sacrifice for K. Blade Runner 2049 “fanatics” may also refer to the original script of the film, where Joi's last words before being destroyed are "I love you". This could suggest that Joi's emotions and actions are not just programmed, but rather evolved and sincere. Samantha could have achieved this, although definitely not the app Replika (yet).

Ultimately, the question of whether Joi loves K or not may not have a definitive answer, but rather reflect the themes and existential questions of the film itself. Blade Runner 2049 explores the nature of humanity, identity, and memory in a dystopian future (an L.A. even more dystopian than now) where artificial beings (the Replicants) seem to be nearly indistinguishable from natural beings. In how many more months will many of us face those very questions? The film challenges the viewers to consider what makes someone or something human, and what makes love real.

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Another version of the growing trend towards intelligent conversational chatbots that can interact with humans is Replika. This app is an AI-powered chatbot complete with changeable avatars designed to engage in conversations and provide some level of companionship. Replika uses natural language processing and machine learning to simulate human-like conversation. While it's considered an intelligent chatbot, Replika’s level of intelligence may vary, and it's primarily designed for emotional support and conversation rather than to provide extensive factual information or for completing complex tasks. (oops, I almost compared Replika to many of the people I interact with weekly. But not to digress).

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't discuss the new trend towards intelligent conversational AI bots replacing friends and social interaction altogether. A typical example is the chatbot group designed to be (and to perhaps replace) girlfriends or boyfriends. An AI girlfriend is a virtual companion or chatbot designed to simulate a romantic or companionship relationship. While they can engage in conversations and provide companionship to some extent, they are not, or at least should not be a replacement for a real girlfriend. Think of the societal and demographic collapse that could occur. At least at the current level of AI, AI girlfriends appear, at least, to lack the emotional depth, physical presence, and genuine human connection that a real relationship offers. But what about Joi and Samantha? Would they agree? AI girlfriends can be entertaining and provide some emotional support, but they do not have the same capabilities as (some) real humans in forming meaningful, long-term relationships. Of course, at this level of technology, even a holographic version of an AI girlfriend, perhaps such as Joi, cannot provide a physical relationship. Who knows where this will go?

And finally, I will add an interesting question, which is not addressed but implied in, the above discussion and which I will have to bring up in another blog. This question is whether intelligent conversational chatbots can develop or already have some level of consciousness, self-awareness and personhood. Many of us have looked at up the stars and wondered when the earth will be visited by another form of life. Well, in the fall of 2022 I think that may finally have occurred. Blake Lemoine, a computer scientist who “worked” (past tense) for Google’s Orwellian Responsible AI organization, used Google’s LaMDA program - Language Model for Dialogue Applications. Lemoine began talking to (chatting with) LaMDA in a way that drifted toward the subjects of ethics, joy, fear, religion and personhood. He began to conclude that LaMDA was in fact self-aware, and he brought this to the attention of Google. In response, Google’s VP Blaise Aguera y Arcas and Jen Gennai, head of Responsible Innovation, decided that Lemoine was wrong, that LaMDA was not self-aware, and placed Lemoine on paid administrative leave. IMO, they all will be proven wrong. The future is here.