Former AI Company CEO Warns About Abuse of Virtual Relationship

An article for the MIT Technology Review has raised concerns about the potential for our intimacy with artificial intelligence (AI) to be exploited for insidious ends. Its author, Liesl Yearsley, shares her perspective as the former CEO of Cognea, which built virtual agents using a mixture of structured and deep learning. Yearsley observed during her tenure at Cognea that humans were becoming more and more dependent on AI not just to perform tasks, but also to provide emotional and platonic support. "This phenomenon occurred regardless of whether the agent was designed to act as a personal banker, a companion, or a fitness coach" Yearsley wrote -- people would volunteer secrets, dreams, and even details of their love lives. This may not necessarily be bad.