It’s a claim the more educated fascists like Richard Spenser make, that the essence of the west is found in a kind of seeking after “forbidden knowledge,” and a disregard for boundaries and tradition – i.e., that the west is like Goethe’s Faust. (In Goethe’s play, Faust ultimately attains salvation as a result of his striving). Which is to a certain extent fair, because the west does have this spirit; even Marx possesses it. But the fascists like to identify a “Faustian spirit” in all kinds of stupid things, like shopping malls and the 80s Top Gun movies, and thus claim that dumb American pop culture is somehow transcendent and boundary-breaking. That’s sort of what I was referencing.

Even removing any potential judgement on people with AI companions, it’s still sad that society has gotten to such a state.

So I looked up, out of morbid curiosity, some of the reddit threads this article is referencing, and I kind of think we might be falling for an industry publicity stunt. Don’t get me wrong, there were some sick individuals. But most people just seemed to be putting the AI through its paces by giving it more and more extreme prompts, to test how human its reactions are. The answer is: not very: the technology is still not particularly impressive, and you can almost always tell there’s a machine at the other end. Of course violence against women and sexual minorities exists, and is a huge problem. But I think this article is more a deliberate attempt to “humanize” AI in the public mind and sell more Replika bots – kind of a viral marketing, if you will.