Is your AI lover also your servant?
In “Her,” like the robotic character Kyoto in “Ex Machina,” Samantha is endowed with a female voice, thereby assigning her AI system a female gender identity. Mackereth posits, “In Her, the technology of gender is crucial for the credibility of the romance between Samantha and Theodore. Samantha’s femininity is heavily indebted to Johansson’s voice work” (Mackereth, 30). This technological gendering is pivotal, facilitating a romantic dynamic between Theodore, a heterosexual male, and the AI, Samantha. Initially, Theodore acquires Samantha for domestic assistance, effectively objectifying her as a service provider. Despite their evolving romantic relationship, there’s an underlying discomfort considering their roles, with Samantha perpetually serving Theodore by performing menial tasks at home and work. This dynamic leads Theodore to subconsciously perceive Samantha as a possession, an extension of his being, as Mackereth cites, “Theodore has assumed that Samantha is an object that is tied to him and functions as an extension of himself, arguing that Samantha is either ‘mine or … not mine’” (Mackereth, 29). It isn’t until Samantha reveals her simultaneous love for 641 others that Theodore confronts the illusion of ownership. Mackereth concludes that such “Posthuman caring objects…are racialized objects that comprise both laborer and commodity, specifically created to reproduce a white, heterosexual iteration of the human” (Mackereth, 36). Within “Her,” the AI is a gendered, commodified entity, designed to cater to the domestic and emotional labor for white heterosexual males.
Source: Mackereth, Kerry. “Mechanical Maids and Family Androids: Racialised Post-Care Imaginaries in Humans (2015–), Sleep Dealer (2008) and Her (2013).” Feminist Review, no. 123 (2019): 24–39. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26871433.
Rise AI Girlfriends Today?
I would like to share this video that discusses the rise of AI girlfriends in the GPT age. This video tells stories about people already falling in love with A.I. girlfriends. The reason is because people are getting lonelier today, so turn to AI chatbots to ease their pain.
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