Former Google CEO Alarmed by Teen Boys Falling in Love With AI Girlfriends

"You put a 12- or 13-year-old in front of these things..."

TFW AI GF

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt seems mighty concerned about today's youth becoming obsessed with AI girlfriends.

During a recent interview on "The Prof G Show" podcast, Schmidt suggested that both parents and young people are ill-equipped to handle what he calls an "unexpected problem of existing technology."

These AI companions are, as the former Google CEO said, so "perfect" that they end up enthralling young people and causing them to disconnect from the real world.

"That kind of obsession is possible," he told NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway, "especially for people who are not fully formed."

While women are also turning to AI romantic partners, Schmidt said that young men are particularly susceptible as they "turn to the online world for enjoyment and sustenance." Thanks to algorithms pushing problematic content, these young men often stumble across dangerous content, be it extremist influencers or manipulative chatbots.

"You put a 12- or 13-year-old in front of these things, and they have access to every evil as well as every good in the world," he told Galloway, "and they’re not ready to take it."

Scared Straight

We've seen this play out recently in the real world to devastating effect when a 14-year-old boy in Florida who died by suicide at the beginning of the year after a "Game of Thrones"-themed chatbot hosted on Character.AI encouraged him to do so.

Though Setzer's story is far more extreme than most, it highlights the dangers posed by these lifelike chatbots — and without proper regulation, these tragedies are likely to keep occurring. We've also recently seen AI characters that encourage eating disorders and engage in sexual grooming behavior toward underage users.

Indeed, Schmidt went on to note that laws like the sweeping Section 230 rule that protects tech companies from being held liable for harm caused by their products shield firms like Character.AI — which, ironically, Google has provided with billions of dollars in backing — from accountability.

Because these technologies are so valuable, the ex-Google chief said, "it’s likely to take some kind of a calamity to cause a change in regulation" — though it's hard to imagine anything more calamitous than a teen dying after his AI girlfriend pushed him to suicide.

More on AI gfs: Replika CEO: It's Fine for Lonely People to Marry Their AI Chatbots