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Aleks Krotoski asks if AI companions will be like imaginary friends of childhood. And if so will they afford the same benefits - making us better, more social human beings.

Aleks Krotoski asks if AI companions will be like imaginary friends of childhood. And if so will they afford the same benefits - making us better, more social human beings.

To mark the 10th anniversary of The Digital Human we're answering some of the questions that have stuck with us over the last ten years. In 2017 we spoke to Eugenia Kuyda who used her AI startup in San Francisco to help her create a chatbot version of her late friend Roman. Using all the texts she and her friends had ever received from him they made an AI that could text in voice.

But it's where she wanted to take the technology that intrigued us. She wanted to give everyone their own Roman, an AI bot that would be a constant companion, infinitely patient and understanding. It would be taught by the user using their own texts and so would speak to them in their own voice. She called it Replika, and five years on the chatbot has 20 million users across the globe.

The idea made us instantly think of imaginary friends from childhood. In this programme Aleks sets out to find out if this is more than an interesting metaphor but perhaps a key way to understanding our relationship with these soon to be pervasive technologies.

Producer: Peter McManus

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29 minutes

Last on

Tue 13 Sep 2022 23:30
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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Dr Paige Davis

Dr Paige Davis

Dr. Paige E Davis is a Developmental Psychologist working as a Senior Lecturer at York St John University.Μύ

Her main research area is in imagination. Her work on imaginary companions examines cognitive development as well as hallucination-like-experiences. Her most recent work looks at the imaginary companions of autistic children and how this relates to parent report of social skills and perspective takingΒ .Μύ

She is a mother of two children who have created their own imaginary companions named Hella Bella, and Crabbie.Μύ

Lucas Rizzotto

Lucas Rizzotto
creates exciting, ridiculous & surprisingly insightful tech projects that show us a glimpse of the future - and then make hilarious videos about them for millions to see.

Dr Naomi Aguiar

Dr Naomi Aguiar
Dr. Aguiar is the Assistant Director of Research in the Research Unit at Oregon State University Ecampus.
In her independent research, she investigates children's concepts of real and imaginary others, including peers, imaginary companions, media characters, and artificially intelligent agents (e.g., virtual characters in digital games). She is also interested in children's experiences of fully immersive virtual environments, and their concepts of the characters that inhabit these spaces.Μύ
Her most recent work focuses on children's parasocial relationships with media characters, including the qualities that make up these relationships, and the opportunities they afford in learning from digital media.

Brian Christian

Brian Christian
Brian Christian is the author of The Most Human Human, which was named a Wall Street Journal bestseller, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a New Yorker favorite book of the year. He is the author, with Tom Griffiths, of Algorithms to Live By, a #1 Audible bestseller, Amazon best science book of the year and MIT Technology Review best book of the year.

Eugenia Kuyda

Eugenia Kuyda
Eugenia Kuyda founded Replika after the death of her close friend Roman. Having kept an enormous number of texts and gathering them from mutual friends she was able create a bot that texted in his style.
This inspired her to give everyone who wanted one an AI companion that they could speak to whatever the time of day or night and that would never judge them.

Broadcasts

  • Mon 30 May 2022 16:30
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Tue 13 Sep 2022 23:30
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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