Can artificial Intelligence Products Replace the Traditional Model of Intimate Relationships?

Abstract

The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has led to the emergence of mimicomorphic, emotional products such as AI companions and emotional companion robots, forcing humans to consider for the first time whether nonliving organisms can replace traditional partners. Therefore, from both psychological and sociological perspectives, it is necessary to propose and explore, from an interdisciplinary perspective, how far AI products can replace traditional intimate interpersonal relationships. On the basis of theories of psychoanalysis and evolutionary psychology and in combination with the basic situation of the target users, a human‒machine mutual trust model is proposed and constructed, namely, the three foundations of human‒machine mutual trust, namely, ability, kindness and integrity. The risk of a crisis in the human‒machine relationship is further quantified as a model. Although AI products offer stable, controllable and low-risk emotional companionship and can better meet users' specific psychological needs and have good application prospects in assisting child-rearing, they lack genuine subjectivity, empathy and social embeddedness and are limited in the dimensions of “deep connection” and “common development”, which replace traditional relationships. Therefore, AI products should not be regarded as substitutes for existing intimate relationships but rather as supplements or even “fallbacks” to the original intimate relationships of people. In the future development of human‒machine interactions, people need to coordinate the relationship between technological development and humanistic orientation, build a new model of human‒machine coevolution, and form a “spiritual home”.