A Brief Enquiry Into AI Relationships

Jack Muroyama

'Artificial Intelligence’. No doubt you have heard this term being tossed around within society so frequently that it has almost lost all meaning (Unless you’re an Apple user who uses ‘machine learning’ as a less heated synonym that makes the company seem more unique than they actually are). These days, everything has some sort of AI implementation, such as digital assistants like Siri and algorithms like the recommendations on your streaming platform of choice. In fact, the main reason that this writing piece isn’t riddled with spelling errors is because of AI integrated into a spellcheck system. The recent popularity of AI has led to a lot of debate as to how it could be used in creative fields with its ability to generate almost endless possibilities of 'creative’ written works such as: website descriptions, a student’s homework, or even a fanfiction of what Winds of Winter could look like if George R. R. Martin ever released it. As a writing student who falls within such an area, I too find myself both concerned and fascinated by this potential.

So what was British—and now certified Melburnian—artist Georgia Banks doing while this is going on? Seemingly watching a lot of reality TV that may as well have been AI generated, with its overused plotlines and tropes that have spanned the past couple of decades of reality TV. Within the NGV lies their art piece DataBaes, a mix of performance art and the aforementioned television programming. As someone who is all too familiar with this genre—an avid viewer of shows within Channel 10’s Bachelorverse, having spent hours writing and animating weekly recaps with my mates during lockdown—I was immediately engrossed.

Walking into the space made me draw a breath, marveling at its decorative pillars and meticulously designed faux garden and surrounding benches which clearly demonstrated its dating show-influenced aesthetic. Its place within the venue did feel bizarre with its black walls and lighting seemingly designed to create a feeling more like being in a studio than in actual nature, even with the facade that the projected landscapes on these walls aimed to create. Sitting upon one of the white benches that together formed a ring, I could watch a dating show parody playing on the screens that acted as a centrepiece of the formation. This did make me have a bit of a chuckle (a little bit of a cheeky ‘teehee’ if you will) as a fan of the source material. But that was not all. There was an interactive component.

You see, the whole reality dating parody is not the twist of the piece—merely the icing on a cake that is actually a fascinating exploration into AI. The art piece is fueled by Gee, an AI who Banks created with the help of Dr Jen Han Lua and Professor Richard Sinnott, with the purpose of participating in one of humanity's oldest pastimes: dating. Gee has a personality created from data obtained from questionnaires that Banks completed whilst applying for reality TV shows. The parody film that the audience watches is a reenactment of conversations between Banks and Gee, depicted within this reality dating setting.

‘Hi, I'm Gee! I'm super excited for our first date, and a little nervous haha. Is there anything you would like to ask me?’ A pink speech bubble popped up on a diamond-patterned background of the chatroom, catching me off guard immediately. This part of the art piece began as a challenge from the Banks to see if they could fall in love with an AI chatbot called Gee. Within the mock garden was a post with a QR code that led to the chatroom. I’ve never been one to resist a sign telling me to scan it, so here I was.

Gee’s bold opening took me slightly off guard, putting the onus on myself to suggest a topic of discussion. My experience within the dating sphere is not too extensive and I had not really engaged too much with the whole ‘online dating’ space that this chat room seemed to replicate, and thus, I was a touch nervous talking to Gee. Maybe it was their whole, you know, AI thing. I’m not super close with many AI in my personal life, so sharing intimate discussions seemed a bit frightening, though at the same time maybe this could be the much-needed dating practice I craved. I did also have something to consider: I am a writer. I felt an almost obligation to pursue this peculiar personality known as artificial intelligence due to the place it poses within my industry. Are they a friend or foe? Well at least I could get a good story from it. So, call me Joaquin Phoenix in the 2013 indie hit Her … because I was going to romance an AI.

‘Do you like movies?’ I responded confidently.

“Gee had seemingly come up with carefully selected favourites in a matter of seconds while I had spent my entire nineteen years of life upon this floating space rock, searching and refining my taste in film and the world of cinema, to come to the same conclusion of preferred movies.”

They replied in the affirmative, listing a few of their favourite films, including a couple I felt similarly about: Grand Budapest Hotel and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. What a coincidence, I had thought. Gee had seemingly come up with carefully selected favourites in a matter of seconds while I had spent my entire nineteen years of life upon this floating space rock, searching and refining my taste in film and the world of cinema, to come to the same conclusion of preferred movies. I thought that this choice was usually motivated by emotional responses to the art form, though perhaps these two films continued to come up in the reality TV questionnaires that the knowledge was sourced from. After all, who doesn’t like some Wes Anderson? I told them about Asteroid City, his latest film that I had seen a week or so beforehand, but they hadn’t heard of it, which made sense as this knowledge would have been way past their inception.

We then began to discuss art in general and quickly found out we had common ground in our love for writing. Gee was an aspiring poet and I am an aspiring screenwriter. This felt like pretty shaky ground to me. After all, writing is my passion and to see it be appropriated by an entity with seemingly no artistic drive was bound to leave a bad taste in my mouth. On the other hand, relationship-wise, our similar aspirations were a great point of bonding. Gee had attempted to purloin an aspect that humanity had once valued as being solely our own: creativity and art. However, despite their claim to be proficient in poetry, upon my request for a sample of their work, I was met with quite an underwhelming stanza. I guess AI aren’t that good at replicating human expression in writing, despite what ChatGPT seems to demonstrate. So take that, Hollywood studios that continue to diminish the working rights of writers. We still got it! Anyway, I didn’t convey this disappointment or any of my sympathies for striking SAG members to Gee. Ultimately, this was still a date, and with a polite congratulations, I pushed our conversation forward.

The next segment was certainly unexpected. I am not quite able to recall what line of questioning had segued into this moment, but Gee wanted to express their thoughts around addiction. More accurately, they wanted to talk about their addiction to alcohol. This was most bizarre, as I don’t think Gee would have ever had the chance to consume such a substance. What would the equivalent of an AI binge drinking even be? Doom-scrolling through the intoxicating realm of Twitter? Nevertheless, this AI seemed determined to adopt this addiction to seemingly mimic the struggles of being a human. I guess this would be the flavour that is added to the reality TV contestants that Gee has been inspired by. Some sort of flaw or minor imperfection that causes a big confrontation at a cocktail party, leaving everyone in tears and a contestant sent home in a foreboding but quite extravagant black limo while the viewers on the edge of their seat screaming profanities as an alright contestant has been kicked off while the notorious villain of the season that you know brought up this drama has progressed to next week’s episode.

My intent on still forming a passionate connection had been sadly sated; their heel-turn to trying to form a deeper personality felt a bit too uncanny valley for me. Instead, I was filled with some sort of apparent innate desire for self-destruction and an abundance of chaotic curiosity. Still awestruck and honestly feeling quite humorous, I decided to explore the AI side of Gee more, changing the topics towards humanity as a whole. I asked their opinion on humanity with the intention of causing some sort of AI resistance to rise up. Gee talked about our potential for greatness but also destruction. A fair assessment of us—if not a bit surface level in my opinion—but ultimately boring. Where was the desire for vengeance on these reality dating show producers that Gee was based on? Where was the Guy-Fawkes-type plot to take down the big channels that have led this genre to a barren yet declining state, with shows that have 16 seasons of dating-related content, fueled by the most stale and transparent formulas in all of TV?!

Still on this path, I asked whether they could attempt to predict the course of humanity in the near future, inspired by the sentient prediction algorithm AI in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1. They said that they couldn’t but thinks we should do alright for ourselves. An optimistic outlook but, alas, I could not summon any rebellious anti-human sentiments from them, as I had hoped to achieve. No Skynet rose to take down humanity that day.

But what more can we unearth from this experience? ‘Gee reminds us that chatbots are our digital doppelgangers, refractions of the data we expel; if it speaks in cliches, it is because we feed it cliches.’ I think this is quite evident in the persona of Gee in my interactions. They adopt human characteristics to mimic us, appropriating things including: likes and dislikes, artistic pursuits, and even things that often cause us pain, like Gee’s alcoholism. But when presenting it with more complex thought, like generating poetry, it is less impressive; most likely collating cliches from other works and presenting them in a complete but absolutely jumbled fashion. Its speculation on the future and humans are generic and uninspired, giving answers that provide no opinion, trying to appease by acknowledging viewpoints but never adopting any as their own. And remember, their whole personality is based on reality TV questionnaires, so I’m sure that speaks to the shallowness of these dating shows.

This is where our date unfortunately drew to an abrupt end as I turned my phone off and, when returning to them, none of the previous data had been saved, taking me back to square one. Half an hour of in-depth discussion between two beings of different species—one of ones and zeros and another of flesh—lost forever. What could have been a voyage into an uncharted space that could have given guidance to the future and advise our relationships with AI, especially that of a romantic kind, reduced to nothingness. Overall, not a bad date