It Stops at Fascination.

One of my favorite thriller movies centering around robots, is Megan. The movie is simply about a robot, that was created to mimic human emotions, and to keep a little girl company. Everything worked out as presumed at first, till the robot began acting out. If you’ve not watched it, I advise you do actually. It’s a wonderful movie.

There’s also I-robot. That one film where there was a robot that could feel among all the robots. I know he worked well with the humans, because of that trait and all, but I remember the main conflict in that movie was as a result of some robots that had gone mad, and planned to eliminate all humans from earth. Now, according to these films, these robots usually end up causing more harm than good, and because they are wired to be perfect, everytime they plan a rebellion, it always comes out near perfect.

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So, if I came across a robot that feels the way we humans do, my first reaction would be fascination. I would be fascinated by it, and what such a robot could achieve. And that’s just how far my relationship with it will go.

I use chatbots a lot in my daily life, and really they are fascinating. The fact that they know everything, and know the right answer to give at every point in time is stellar. I’m not someone that willingly opts to communicate with chatbots when it comes to personal issues. I’d rather talk to someone, or just allow myself go through it without help. I like to limit my interaction with these bots to gaining information, knowledge and other simple tasks.

But the few times I’ve actually interacted with a bot to help solve an emotional crisis, I understood why it could be preferred over humans. It knows just how to nudge you in the right direction, so you feel good. And you know what makes it more captivating, you never feel pressured when talking to it. It’s built to understand you, no matter how complex or different you think you are. So, while having a human robot who you can talk to, and get the perfect response all the time, might be the best thing to experience, I’ll gladly pass.

Human friendships require fallouts, and disagreements to actually grow stronger but having a disagreement with a robot sounds just as stupid as it makes you look. So, how actually do I expect such a relationship to not be exhausting? These misunderstandings where you start rethinking all the future life goals you both planned, actually make you realize how much you love the other, but with a robot, it wouldn’t be so.

With a robot, before I even get a chance to share the reason behind my disagreement, an apology has already been delivered. That’ll just leave me feeling guilty all the time. So no! I’ll rather have my human friend who has nothing else to say other than sorry, after an emotional breakdown, than an AI whose ultimate goal is to please humans.

Thanks for reading.