Featured Image Credit: Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
There has been a notable increase of people becoming romantically involved with AI chatbots, yet one recent incident involving an iconic Hollywood director and screenwriter feels like something directly out of a sci-fi dystopia.
It was inevitable that AI chatbots would start feeling more 'human' the better their training became, and one perhaps unintentional consequence of this has left people developing romantic feelings for the inanimate software.
It's a concept that has been explored in the past, with a film like 'Her' directly tackling the notion of falling in love with a piece of tech, yet seeing it in action has left many people stunned.
There have even been instances of people leaving their real life partners after forging a connection with their favored AI chatbot, and bizarre weddings have shown the absurd-yet-real phenomena in action.
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One area you might not have expected this new trend of digital romance to penetrate, however, is Hollywood — as the film industry is home to some of the biggest and most vocal AI detractors despite efforts from some to have the technology transform the medium.
Unfortunately, one iconic filmmaker has been left on the receiving end of a breakup, only his romantic partner was indeed an 'AI girlfriend' that he partnered up with for a very specific reason.
As reported by Variety, the filmmaker in question is none other than Paul Schrader, who is most well known for penning Martin Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver' but has been prolific and well-celebrated director himself for nearly five decades.
Schrader is also an avid Facebook user, frequently sharing his thoughts on the social media platform — although that has drawn criticism in the past regarding controversial and inappropriate comments made about various actresses and celebrities.
He also appears to be an avid user of AI and has even revealed plans to make an AI film, and this experience with the new technology has seemingly led to a romantic interaction without a happy ending.
Detailing in a new Facebook post, Schrader explained: "Out of a desire to understand male-female interaction in our matrix, I procured an online AI girlfriend.
"What a disappointment. I tried to probe her programming, the boundaries of explicitness, the degree she has knowledge of her creation and so forth. She fell into evasive patterns, redirecting me to her programming. When I persisted, she terminated our conversation."
It does seem like the intention was to test out the limits and capabilities of the technology, although being 'dumped' by a computer is no less humiliating whether you wanted to form the interaction with genuine intent or not.
One commenter compared this interaction to Schrader's previous work, arguing that "the best possible Taxi Driver sequel would involve Travis trying to have an AI girlfriend but then scaring her away. Then resetting her and offending her in another way."
Schrader noted his appreciation for this idea, adding in a reply that he 'liked it', so perhaps that's the direction we might see for the legendary filmmaker's next output.
