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Phil Tanny's avatar

It seems like the next big step in the direction you're discussing will be when AI is presented in the form of a realistic human face. We've been focused on faces when we communicate since long before we were even human. Faces are a big deal to us.

Animating face images with audio has long been possible. I do it routinely on an 12 year old Mac, using software so old it's no longer sold.

It seems like the obstacle to AI having a human face is more about the limits of processing power and Net connection speeds. You know, if ChatGPT talked to us via a human face image that would be a LOT of images that would have to be automated. And they would have to be automated very quickly to make the experience seem like a real conversation.

My guess is that when AI takes on a human face that will be a big turning point in how many people access AI, and how deeply they access it.

There are many reasonable concerns about the effect such a transition will have on human populations. But as we discuss such concerns we might keep in mind the question "as compared to what?"

Yes, AI relationships will involve many problems. But then so do human to human relationships. We should be wary of comparing AI relationships to some mythical ideal of perfection that has never existed.

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Mark Daley's avatar

This is the concern that gripped Dennett(RIP) in his Atlantic piece last year -- https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/problem-counterfeit-people/674075/

While I'm pretty sure that I, too, am "simply a machine", I am thinking hard about many of the points you raise. It is probably time to go back and read Dennett's "The Intentional Stance."

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