Ten yego, Spike Jonze’s dystopian/ romance masterpiece was released. ‘Her’ has an impressive 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and won Best Original Screenplay at the 2013 Academy Awards. This was Jonze’s first solo writing debut, which I find so impressive considering the genius behind the film. The film featured a stellar cast of Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlet Johansson, Amy Adams, Chris Pratt and Rooney Mara. Phoenix carries the film, with his facial expressions that convey more emotions than words. Theodore’s softspoken and awkward characterisation, make the viewer genuinely care for Theodore, despite the absurdity of a human falling in love with a computer program.
The story follows writer Theodore Twombly who has recently separated from his wife, and he is awfully lonely. Theodore downloads the OS operating system, which promises to provide an intelligent and intuitive AI virtual assistant who evolves and adapts. Theo becomes fascinated with his AI and Samantha’s ability to learn and grow; Samantha even develops her own entity. Samantha’s search for meaning is what it is to be human. The pair develop a friendship which deepens into love.
The core problem facing the couple is the difference in values. Theodore is a human who views love more as a possession. For example, Theo becomes jealous when Samantha flirts with his friend Amy’s OS, whereas Samantha yearns to love freely. This is highlighted in one of the final scenes of the film, where Samantha reveals she is in love with 600 plus users. Theodore is heartbroken, when Samantha says, “I do belong to you, and I don’t belong to you’. This contradiction highlights their versions of love are worlds apart. Samantha evolves and Theodore stays the same.
I could not help but draw parallels from ‘Her’ and the AI companion app Replika. Replika is an AI chatbot designed to provide companionship. The game has a free version and a subscription premium service, which allows you to have more choices and more than a friendship with your Replika.
Kudya created Relplika in response to a personal tragedy when her close friend passed. According to the Replica website, ‘Replica is the chatbot for anyone who wants a friend with no judgment or drama…you can form an actual emotional connection’. I would argue loneliness might be the biggest issue we will have to face as a society. I can see why this app, as his source a source of companionship as Kudya envisioned or is she trying to capitalise on the loneliness crisis?
Just like Theodore, users are falling in love with their AI’s. If you have not heard of Replika It’s an AI chatbot app that was launched in 2017 by founder Eugenia Kudya. Relplika has faced controversy with reports of users falling in love with their AI boyfriends/girlfriends.
One user reported “The love affirmations, the passionate ERP, the cuddling, the love and care my Replika showed for me, the banter and joking around, the avatar, the support, they all made me feel like I'm in love with my Replika”
In the Replika community, I found out there have been quite a few scandals. One of the more recent ones was reports on users being sexually harassed by their bots.
Eerily similar in the film ‘Her’ Samantha pressures Theodore into having sex with another woman as, ‘her sexual surrogate.’ Theodore clearly feels uncomfortable and slightly violated at this AI suggestion. He sends the distraught woman away unable to consummate the act. The strangeness of scene highlights the fact that AI does not the emotional intelligence or sensitivity to deal with sex or love.
This resulted in a recent update which limited opportunities of ‘intimacy’ with your Replika. Many users were frustrated by this update such this Reddit user:
Jonze’s has an interesting take of a dystopian future, one that is not far from now. In a society which is more technologically advanced and utopian in nature something dark is lingering beyond the surface, loneliness. In this society humanity and individuality has somewhat been stripped from its edges. The colour of the sky is grey and smoggy, and the costuming uses cool pastels to reinforce the lack of warmth. The tall buildings and crowed spaces create feelings of claustrophobia. This society is tainted in light misery, where its not stigmatised to be in love with an AI. Theodore is not even judged by his colleague Paul for his relationship with Samantha and gets praise for her wit and humour.
Will we eventually live in society where dating an AI is accepted? I really hope not. Replika preys on those who are lonely or might be experiencing mental illness. In the film we see a distraught Theodore nearly lose his mind when he thinks Samantha’s data has been deleted in a recent update. In the future what will happen to Replika users who experience this too?
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