This week, I read ‘The privacy implications of social robots: Scoping review and expert interviews’ by Christopher Lutz, Maren Schottler, and Christian Pieter Hoffman. Something that stuck out to me is that these social robots are able to make emotional bonds with their users and this have high psychological influence. These robots may render users more willing to disclose intimate information and details.
This made me think about the movie ‘Her’ in which a lonely man, Joaquin Phoenix, falls in love with Samantha, an AI that resembles Siri. He installs the world’s first intelligent operating system into his computer and eventually builds an emotional bond with the system. The system, Samantha, is able to learn and grow psychologically thus they build a bond through discussion. Eventually, Joaquin discovers that Samantha is simultaneously talking to thousands of other people and in love with hundreds of them.
Would people be comfortable in a world where you can fall in love with AI? I know many people build relationships online or maybe converse with AI technologies, but would our world be comfortable with people dating, falling in love with, or marrying AI? I know I personally would not feel comfortable knowing that my peers may be in relationships with robots.
There are also huge privacy implications that come along with the idea of social robots. These robots would introduce new elements of surveillance. I don’t think society is comfortable with the idea of surveillance. Collectively, we don’t understand the level of surveillance we are under 24/7 which makes us freak out at the idea of being watched. Even though our computers, phones, watches, traffic cameras, ring doorbells, etc. watch our every move, people tend to brush over those surveillance technologies. We don’t want to think of ourselves as being surveilled. It feels like a breach of privacy even though we already have little to no privacy as humans living in the modern world.
The concept of privacy and surveillance also made me think of the movie ‘Snowden’ which is based off a real story in which an NSA agent leaked highly classified information regarding public surveillance by the government. People were outraged at the level of surveillance the government had on its people. With little to no effort, the government could watch any person’s every move. This was very upsetting to the public.
I think the reason that the surveillance associated with our technology doesn’t bother us is that it is a willing process. We weigh the pros and cons of having a phone, watch, doorbell, etc. and decide that the benefits they provide to us outweigh the potential for surveillance or breaches of confidentiality. I have many technology products that track my every move. However, I am not doing anything that I am worried about being surveilled by the government. Yes, I would be weirded out if I found out government agents were just tapping into my everyday life, but I don’t believe that’s happening. I have nothing to hide so if wearing my Apple Watch makes me happy, then I’m going to do it no matter what implications come along with it.
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