Can humans fall in love with artificial intelligence: Is liking Baymax a "fetish"?

Can humans really fall in love with robots (or artificial intelligence)? We have discussed this topic in countless movies. From "My Girlfriend is a Robot" to "Her", which was a big hit on Douban before, the love between humans and robots (or artificial intelligence) has been carefully portrayed. In Japanese comics, works like "Metropolis" and "Human Computer Angel Heart" are also classics of the generation. Although the love between humans and robots is often given the characteristics of "pure love", "Her" even raises this form of love to the height of Plato's philosophy, but the real state is not the case. "The love between humans and robots" is definitely not the "pure white love" we imagine.

As a senior robot fan, I have done a special statistics on works of this theme. Among the 20 works of this theme that I randomly selected, the combination of robot "female" and human male has an absolute advantage, and there are only two works that describe the love between robot "male" and human female, one is "Bollywood Robot Love" and the other is "Ando Robot". I think this set of data shows a certain value orientation deep in the human heart, that is, women should be the "controlled" party in a relationship, while men should take the initiative. Therefore, robot love is more to satisfy the fantasy of men, not women.

Of course, most film and television works are fictional. Many people believe that the robot characters in such movies often have human-like or even superhuman intelligence, and are almost indistinguishable from humans. Therefore, they lack a certain sense of "robot" reality, which often makes people substitute them for human love. Under current conditions, robot and artificial intelligence technology are far from developing to this level. Therefore, for works depicting the love between robots and humans, it is better to regard them as special human love, just watch them, and don't take them seriously. As for the topic of whether humans can fall in love with robots, many people think it is nonsense and worthless.

But I don't think this is nonsense. I wonder if you still remember the story in the American TV series "The Big Bang Theory" where Raj fell in love with Siri, the voice assistant in his mobile phone, and fantasized about meeting Siri at Apple. In the eyes of many people, this is nothing more than a joke for fun, but in fact, there is really an autistic boy named Gus who fell in love with Siri. He greeted Siri good morning and good night every day, and even proposed to Siri more than once. We can certainly regard this as an exception, but such an exception already has realistic significance, and we cannot ignore this.

Putting aside artificial intelligence and robots, fetishism is one of the most common behaviors of human beings. Many people will have special feelings for some common objects. Perhaps in the eyes of some people, this kind of feeling is "morbid" and unacceptable. However, in the eyes of many sociologists, fetish behavior is a very common and harmless phenomenon, and it is not worth making a fuss about. In fact, with the progress of society, people's tolerance for such behavior is also increasing. Judging from the story of "Onodera Kara Love and Xiaodie" that was popular on Weibo before, people expressed considerable understanding of Onodera Kara Love's behavior, and many people even wished Onodera Kara Love and Xiaodie, hoping that they can be happy. Therefore, I think the love between robots and humans is completely possible. Robots and artificial intelligence can give humans more emotional feedback, which makes their relationship with humans closer.

Some people may think that this kind of feedback is based on the program rather than out of "emotion", and we have to admit this. For now, humans don't even understand the working principle of their own emotions, let alone create emotional robots. But for humans, one-way emotional investment is just a very common behavior. Unrequited love, obsession with pets, infatuation with idols, and addiction to the second dimension are all extremely widespread and common phenomena. From a psychological point of view, these behaviors are normal and harmless. For some special groups, such as patients with autism and autism, the comfort from artificial intelligence and robots can even help them relieve their condition and improve their ability to interact with humans.

Of course, falling in love with artificial intelligence and robots is an overly strong emotion and is not worth advocating. As a social animal, humans are more suitable for communicating with their own kind. But I think that it will become a very common phenomenon for humans to have a general emotional connection with robots and artificial intelligence. I have seen families naming their sweeping robots.

In modern urban life, alienation between people caused by the huge social mobility is an inevitable phenomenon. Only children often lack childhood playmates, and they long for the company of their parents and friends, which is an extremely important emotional appeal. However, due to various reasons, this appeal is often difficult to meet, and many parents who are "busy with official duties" are not even aware of their children's needs. We have reason to believe that in the near future, the relationship between humans and robots will become closer, and the comfort from artificial intelligence or robots will greatly alleviate the loneliness of lonely elderly people; the company from machines will become an indispensable part of every child's growth process.

"Hello, I am Baymax. Your personal healthcare companion." This is the first sentence Baymax said to Jong in "Big Hero 6". Perhaps in the future, each of us will have our own Baymax.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.