‘THE KISSINGER’ AND THE FUTURE OF AI
A long-distance kissing machine marks another step in the inexorable march of artificial intelligence. It throws up questions about how we should be harnessing the power of AI for good
“Can a machine replace a kiss? Chinese start-up’s new invention raises eyebrows and excitement.” If this headline weren’t creepy enough, the blurb would do the job: “Main issue users have with fastselling device is the lack of a tongue.”
That’s the main issue? The lack of a fake tongue? Not the fact that you’re kissing what is basically a cross between a Croc shoe and an inflatable sex doll? I urge the reader to google images for “MUA” and “long-distance kissing machine”, and you’ll see what I mean. Then clear your search history.
According to The Independent newspaper, whose headline is quoted above, MUA is named after the sound people commonly make when blowing a kiss — which speaks volumes in itself about the fake nature of this interaction.
In brief, the invention, developed by a company in Beijing, “uses motion sensors hidden in silicon lips to collect ‘kiss data’ from a user, which is then transmitted to the device of a receiver, allowing the person to experience the sensation of being kissed in real time
… MUA is more than just a simple transmission device. It also captures and replays sound and warms up slightly during kissing, making the experience more authentic.”
Making the experience more authentic, you say? Are you quite sure you know what the word authentic means?
I guess there are two ways we can look at this. It’s either yet another harbinger of doom for the human race, as we increasingly get alienated from each other by technologies that were supposed to make us better, or it’ sa sign of the indomitable will of humanity to hold on to intimacy despite the travails of globalisation and the dying kicks of capitalism. And by indomitable will, I really mean the capacity humans have to believe in the absurd over the real when it suits them, which is possibly the defining trait that separates us from other species.
I remember reading a story a while ago about how Japanese children, too busy to visit dear old mum in the retirement village, would hire actors to pretend to be them. And apparently this was not weird at all. The parents were happy to pretend an actor was their son, and so were the people around them. It turns out there’s an entire Rent-A-Family industry in
Japan, where you can hire a stand-in for any relationship you need.
The BBC relates the story of a woman, Asako, who hired a man to pretend to be the father of her daughter, Megumi. Incredibly, this contract had run, at the time of the story in
2018, for 10 years. And could go on forever, apparently.
“Asako has no plans to end the arrangement with Takashi and says she would like to carry on hiring him to play Megumi’s dad indefinitely — even if that means sinking deeper and deeper into a world of fantasy and deception,” the news service reports.
It goes on to quote Asako: “The ideal situation is that [my daughter] continues to think of him as her father. So when she gets married I’d like him to be at her wedding ceremony, and when she has her own child, I’d like him to act as a grandfather as well. The worst-case scenario is that my daughter finds out.”
The man in question runs the rental agency, and has 20 full-time staff and more than 1,000 freelancers. “As an actor himself, he’s played boyfriends, businessmen, friends and fathers, and been a bridegroom at five fake weddings.”
People pretending to be what they’re not is one thing, but the long-distance kissing machine is another. I came across that story just after reading a fascinating piece on academic website The Conversation titled “Futurists predict a point where humans and machines become one. But will we see it coming?”
The piece talks about the singularity, that concept so beloved of a certain type of science-fiction writer.
“Many philosophers and scientists think AI could one day reach (or even go beyond) human-style ‘thinking’. This possibility, coupled with our increasing dependence on AI, is at the root of a concept in futurism called ‘technological singularity’,” authors John Kendall Hawkins and Sandy Boucher write.
You’ll also be amused to note that AI isn’t the acronym we really need to fear. It’s AGI that should worry us.
“Today, the ‘singularity’ refers to a hypothetical point in time at which the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) — that is, AI with humanlevel abilities — becomes so advanced that it will irreversibly change human civilisation. It would mark the dawn of our inseparability from machines. From that moment on, we won’t be able to live without them without ceasing to function as human beings. But if the singularity comes, will we even notice it?”
Yes, we will notice it! There are people out there demanding that their long-distance kissing machine needs a tongue! Not only will we see the AGI coming, we’ll actually be coming with it. (The Independent notes that, “as with any new technology, concerns have arisen about potential misuse, especially regarding online erotic content, which is strictly regulated in China”.)
It’s also worth noting that MUA isn’ ta one-off, but the latest in a series of attempts to make machines stand in for humans. “The Japanese ‘kiss transmission machine’, invented by researchers at Tokyo’s University of Electro-Communications in 2011, was an early attempt at long-distance intimacy. Malaysia’s Imagineering Institute followed suit with the ‘Kissinger’ in 2016.”
But I’m kidding about the ominous nature of these things. MUA is a frivolous manifestation, rather than the bone-deep system changes that AI is bringing. And in fact I’m behind any invention that helps us simulate human interaction. I am slightly worried, though, that Elon “Birdkiller” Musk is a proponent of braincomputer interfaces (BCIs).
According to Hawkins and Boucher, “BCIs are a natural beginning to the singularity in the eyes of many futurists, because they meld mind and machine in a way no other technology so far can.
“Elon Musk’s company Neuralink is seeking permission from the US Food & Drug Administration to begin human trials for its BCI technology. This would involve implanting neural connectors into volunteers’ brains so they can communicate instructions by thinking them.”
There are good impulses behind this research, as it could help paraplegic people to walk, and blind people to see again. Which some would say fits into Musk’s Christ complex (performs miracles, is persecuted, and you can fill in the rest).
“Musk has long said he believes brain implants will allow telepathic communication, and lead to the co-evolution of humans and machines. He argues that unless we use such technology to augment our intellects, we risk being wiped out by super-intelligent AI.”
The CEO of Synchron, another company working on BCI tech, says brain implants “may one day allow users to ‘throw’ their emotions so others can feel what they’re feeling, and ‘the full potential of the brain would then be unlocked’”.
Which is all very well in the abstract, but as Hawkins and Boucher warn us — using the dry formulation “it’s also worth mentioning”—“the start-up funding for Synchron partly came from Darpa, the research & development arm of the US department of defence that helped gift the world the internet. It’s probably wise to be concerned about where Darpa places its investment monies.”
It probably is wise. Given that we’re nervous about having TikTok on our phones, and giving up all our data to Facebook, how much more anxious should we be about the computer bit of our lovely brain-computer interfaces being supplied by technology from the avaricious empires that control it?
The Conversation also links out to a short review of The Technological Singularity, a book by Murray Shanahan which points out that if the field of AI continues to develop at its current accelerated rate (think ChatGPT’s meteoric rise), the singularity could come about in the middle of this century. But one thing is for sure: wishing away AI is as futile as wishing away the internet’s inability to work for news publishing companies.
Shanahan makes the important point that “whether we believe that singularity is near or far, likely or impossible, apocalypse or utopia, the very idea raises crucial philosophical and pragmatic questions, forcing us to think seriously about what we want as a species”.
Takashi, the man who pretended to be the father of Megumi, talks about the unintended consequences, and ethical dilemmas. “This is one of the big issues of renting a family. Megumi could get married in the future and then her husband would think I’m her father. If she then has her own child that means she’d believe I’m the grandfather of her child, and the stakes get bigger and bigger.”
The choices we make now about AI will come with their own unforeseen ramifications. Just as we all know where the long-distance kissing machine technology is going to take us (don’t make me spell it out), we all know there are going to be people and states using AI for evil ends. The interesting bit is how we prepare for AI, and how we use its power to improve society.