As a continuation of my lil series on the commodification of human connection, we go to the next logical step, which is the automation of the human connection. You don’t even need the human!

This is a fascinating interview with anthropologist Isabelle Fioroni from the University of Helsinki who has been doing an ethnography on individuals who use AI for different relationships. We talk about the history of mourning the dead and how we find new ways to do so, including AI versions of past loved ones, about romantic relationships, therapeutical relationships, and more. Her perspective as an anthropologist is fascinating. I think the important thing is to have compassion when looking at these cases, because who can blame anyone in this world for seeking connection wherever they can find it. That being said, we talk about the harms also.

I will do another episode on AI that goes more into my own critique and analysis of these technologies as a whole, and looking into people’s more recent spiritual and religious connections to AI.

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