River
Active member
I'm not sure if the AI is sophisticated enough that one can fall in love with it that you can't say it loves back. Consider the AI in the movie She, or the holographic companion in Bladerunner 2049.
Those are fictional stories.
No machine ever made can be said to be aware, or conscious, to have experiences.... This is -- or should be taken as -- a fact.
Consider a pair of scissors (perhaps the simplest of machines ever made) or a kitchen toaster for example. Can your toaster love you? Can your toaster feel kindness or warmth toward you? How about scissors.
As far as anyone knows, only biologically based beings have ever been aware in any sense which we humans are aware. That is, only animals (maybe plants? Or other living creatures) have experiences and awareness.
Does a brick or a stone have experiences, feelings, awareness? It is doubtful.
Machines are being made which can resemble humans in various respects. Including having what we call "intelligence" (i.e., artificial intelligence). But we have absolutely no reason to believe these machines are experiencing, having feelings, cares, concerns, awareness.... They may even say to us "Darling, I have a headache and am not in the mood right now." But that's either programmed behavior or it arose out of some kind of program or algorithm. Remember those dolls which had a string with a ring extending from their backs? You pull the string and the doll begins to speak. But all it is is a kind of tape recorder, a mere machine. It isn't really talking any more than your home stereo system is talking. Examine a piece of recording tape, or a vinyl disk... and learn how it reproduces sounds. It's just a machine, like an adjustable wrench or a bicycle.
For centuries "the machine metaphor" has been employed to try and explain living beings as nothing more than "a machine". But it is not an apt metaphor. Life has properties which machines should not be expected ever to evolve into. Indeed, we simply don't know how or why we are aware, experiencing beings. It's the least understood question in science. We simply don't know how experience and awareness arises.