The era of artificial intelligence is rapidly approaching. Now, it is difficult to imagine the life of modern society outside the digital environment. People have new opportunities that they could hardly imagine before and which they only read about in the books of science fiction authors. Nowadays, people can chat with an AI companion playing the role of some fictional character. Let’s take a look at the future of this technology.
Current Situation
Modern technologies help a person save time, find the necessary information, write a letter or text, and perform the most complex operations of production processes. But gradually, another important function is becoming more and more clearly evident in artificial intelligence: for a long time, providing a person with the opportunity to communicate and providing a variety of technical devices and devices for this, it gradually began to “acquire” its personality and play a completely unexpected role in communication for a person – not an intermediary and an assistant, but a partner. This role is always played as an equal and must be taken seriously. Artificial intelligence is becoming a full-fledged interlocutor for humans and is already actively conducting a dialogue with them.
Today, most large global companies successfully use chatbots, which can quickly respond to client requests, discover their intentions, and provide the necessary assistance. Leading banks are introducing voice assistants to work in call centers and mobile applications. The popular ChatGPT technology allows you to write high-quality text of any complexity, from a simple email to a thesis; browsers are actively being developed that, in response to user search queries, will not provide a list of sites but ready-made answers, that is, enter into a direct dialogue with the interlocutor.
In AI chat, users can talk to the AI like a real person. They act out complex scenarios and perfectly play the role of a specific hero with his character. This new reality has both advantages and disadvantages. Is it possible to find advantages in the fact that communication is increasingly moving to the “man-machine” plane? Undoubtedly, there are such advantages, and in many ways, they are determined by the disadvantages that are characteristic of communicating with one’s kind.
Challenges
Natural communication is very difficult. On the way to person-to-person communication, there are various filters and barriers. Interlocutors often do not listen or hear each other; they are inattentive to their partner and the words they pronounce themselves and hear from others. Artificial intelligence does not know such weaknesses and negligence, and from some point of view, it looks like an ideal (in every sense) interlocutor.
The virtual interlocutor or chatbot expresses himself unambiguously and clearly, is easy to understand, is not distracted by unnecessary things, and instantly “grabs” the main idea through keywords. His questions are clear and precise, his words are verified in meaning and conveniently formulated, and he is always competent, extremely polite, and correct.
Therefore, an artificial interlocutor can provide a person with invaluable help—it can force him to be attentive to individual words and general formulations, teach him to formulate questions clearly, avoid ambiguity and polysemy, and “set up” his example for polite communication that does not go beyond accepted norms.
Even at today’s level of development, AI roleplay is striking in its complexity. It is difficult to understand from the bot’s responses that this is not a person. AI flawlessly copes with the task and plays the role of a communication partner. The user selects one of the available characters, each of which has a personality. Bots don’t make mistakes, don’t go out of character, and provide a whole new level of roleplaying.
Potential Future
But not everything looks so rosy, and such perfect communication has drawbacks. Real communication is a very complex and multifaceted process. Entering this complex field, a person not only conveys information of intellectual content to their interlocutor but also willingly or unwillingly exchanges emotions and moods with their partner, revealing their inner world for a moment. Sometimes, this additional information, hidden behind words or with their help, tells us much more about the speaker than his speech. This huge layer of understanding is not yet available to artificial intelligence.
A chatbot does not feel the mood, does not read the emotional background, cannot play a language game, and catches a complex human emotion behind an unusual intonation. Artificial intelligence does not yet have access to empathy or sincere sympathy. It is not able to make the necessary pause when necessary or change the tone of speech if the situation requires it. In the end, it is completely unable to grasp the hidden meaning of the spoken word. That is why “artificial” conversations so often irritate, especially when a person needs participation, trust, and a living, sincere human presence.
The new reality of interaction between man and machine in the field of communication is
terra incognita, which so far provides very few answers and poses too many questions for society. Will a person lose something important, truly human, in such communication? Or will the machine acquire new, more “living” features, thanks to communication, and be able to get so close to the secrets of the human soul?
Most likely, technology will make a quantum leap in the future. Lifelike roleplay will truly become indistinguishable from real communication. Perhaps we will stop being wary of bots and begin to use them more widely for entertainment and everyday activities.
Conclusion
However, artificial intelligence is developing, and the pace of this development cannot be a surprise. It is quite possible that very soon, the machine will be taught empathy – that is, it will add to its rich arsenal the unique ability to empathize, read the emotional state of the interlocutor, and adapt to it. Most likely, as a result, artificial intelligence will learn only artificial empathy, but this will give our new interlocutors another advantage. Now, chatbots diligently record all the information about the person with whom they enter a dialogue. But for now, we are talking about general information: personal data, reason for contacting, and a range of resolved issues.
