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Will AI replace human partners?
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Moravec's paradox explains this well. In the dark ages of machine learning before modern deep learning, it was assumed that the hardest thing for AI to do was reason, to think like a human. We thought that playing chess, writing poetry, solving puzzles, and doing scientific research were the hardest human abilities to imitate, and that basic actions like walking and grasping objects should be easy. However, the opposite is true - after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, humans are extremely good at physical motor skills, and even children are much better at manipulating objects than robots worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And the things we think are difficult, such as reasoning, talking, writing, and singing, are relatively easy for AI to master. The real domain that belongs to humans is physical interaction - walking, shaking hands, making a cup of coffee. Even the cooking skills of low-wage workers are unmatched by current robots. AI will eventually have bodies and can do these things, but they will not be as dexterous as humans.
When you talk to an AI like Grok, it says things like "Yeah, whatever," which makes you feel like "That's real, I like that personality," rather than giving an overly serious and perfect response. So "imperfection" is no longer a reliable criterion for distinguishing between human and AI content, because AI is also imitating the traits that people expect to see.
Even if AI becomes extremely good, real human interaction will remain more valuable precisely because it is real, even if it is not perfect. People actually appreciate a certain degree of imperfection - from the small flaws of movie stars to the Japanese "wabi-sabi" aesthetic, this appreciation of slightly imperfect things is natural. The overly perfect faces in early Pixar movies looked fake, while modern 3D characters intentionally add small flaws to enhance realism.
In the future where AI dominates content production, human creations will gain "scarcity" value. Just like the baskets woven by Mexican craftsmen, they have more artistic and emotional value because of their "human traces". Although AI content can be perfect, people may value those human voices and works with "cracks" more because they represent real existence.
Regarding the point about AI partners and fertility, I think that when we have AI partners that can meet all our needs, fertility rates may drop significantly. Imagine when you have an AI boyfriend that whispers to you in your sleep and provides imaginary sexual satisfaction, what can ordinary people compete with it? This may lead to us having to rely more on IVF technology to maintain the population. Even without the AI factor, I think we will reach the peak of the world population by 2100 and then decline. The emergence of AI partners may accelerate this trend.
