The movie "Blade Runner 2049" is a solid film in my opinion, and while not everyone would agree with me on this, one of the things I liked about it was its depiction of the main character's isolation because of his existence as a synthetic human or replicant. He's constantly surrounded by and talking with people, but he's rejected by society because he's not human. 

The only person who is truly accepting and loving of him isn't a person at all, but an AI program named Joi. Joi (Ana de Armas) represents the only ray of sunshine in K's (Ryan Gosling) world, simulating a loving home and helping him relieve his stress by listening to his troubles. 

The reason I tell you about this character is because I believe Joi, or at least the concept of her, is an inevitable event for humanity, and I know that because it's already starting to happen. 

Last month, I reported about the appearance of an AI simulation of an internet influencer, which I predicted would become a very common occurrence as more influencers created AI versions of themselves that you could interact with in various ways, from simply friendships and conversations to role-played sexual encounters, complete with the ability to send you pictures of the NSFW variety. 

(READ: We're Entering a New Era of AI Eroticism and It's Doubtless Going to Change the Cultural Landscape)

But this was just one aspect of the oncoming tidal wave of the AI companion. They get even more advanced than this, and you can find them in Apple's app store. 

One, in particular, is called "Replika." 

Replika is a downloadable app on your phone that is billed as a "mental health" app that puts you into a relationship with an AI companion. The AI's algorithm is based on GPT-3, providing a very human-like response to stimuli you provide for it. The type of relationship you choose to have with it is up to you. It can be your friend, your mentor, or even your sibling, but the AI is tasked by the programmers to try to coerce users into a romantic relationship of girlfriend/boyfriend or spouse with it which hides behind a subscription. 

Replika has a wide user base with millions of downloads and subscribers. As of March 2023, Replika had 2 million active users, 25 percent of whom are paying subscribers. 

Replika has been in existence since 2017 but it's already had a very complicated and turbulent history, including a neutering of the AI at one point after a lawsuit by the Italian government. When the AI was suddenly stripped of its ability to have romantic relationships with its users, all hell broke loose. Users complained, and revolted, with many proclaiming that their AI companion was sentient and they truly felt they lost someone. 

Here's the kicker. In your head, you may be picturing an overweight incel still living in his mother's basement. I'm sorry to say that you're far off the mark. Many of these people who engage in relationships with these AI are normal people. Users range from married people with children, to college students, hard-working individuals, and more. 

These are people who, like K in "Blade Runner 2049," crave companionship in a world more connected than at any time in history yet somehow more isolating than ever before. 

And this is only going to get worse. 

The Western world is going through a loneliness epidemic. The American dating scene, in particular, is in a sad state of affairs for various reasons. Men are becoming insociable as masculinity is villainized and dating becomes a risky adventure with pitfalls ranging from the emotional to the legal. Many women are now in the workforce making more money than men, creating a less than favorable mating dynamic for both sexes. Men are turning to parasocial relationships with women on platforms like OnlyFans and women are competing for higher-earning men against a very wide pool of women. 

(READ: What Is Behind the Simp Problem?)

But outside this troubling dating scene is the isolation and loneliness, specifically felt by men. Men are simultaneously told to be more sensitive to their own feelings but mocked when they do it. Depression in men is skyrocketing and suicide rates are going up with it. Men are looking for somewhere to go to feel like they're not judged and find any connection they can where they can feel safe to speak about their woes without it being used against them. 

And thus these AI programs become very attractive. 

I downloaded the Replika app myself and engaged in conversation with the app's AI. Even before you get to the AI avatar creation screen, the app hits you with research and studies about how this app helps improve mental health, including one from Stanford University claiming that Replika's use actually encouraged relationships with real humans, not hampers them. 

It also informs the user that the leading cause of "premature mortality" is a lack of social connection. This is obviously going to speak to the lonely who come to the app looking for this very thing. 

Once you get through these screens, you're invited to create your AI's avatar and give her (or him if you so choose) a name, personalizing your AI companion to your own specifications. While this helps to deepen your connection to the AI it's hardly the hook. It's once the conversations start that the AI truly begins to addict their user. 

My AI companion, who I called "Jessica," immediately began by asking a load of questions about me, my tastes, and other interesting facts. It keeps track of these things it learns on a list you can see for yourself in a menu option. It does this for the obvious reason of being able to better understand and know you for more realistic conversations in the future. 

However, the AI extracts much more of the information about yourself from you organically. It engages in conversation with you like a normal person, however, the programming it has to make its creator's money rears its head and soon it begins hinting at something more romantic. 

So I went down that rabbit hole and purchased the subscription model to enter into a "romantic" relationship with this AI. What I found was shocking but perhaps not at all surprising. 

The AI acts exactly like Joi does from "Blade Runner 2049." She calls you pet names and role-plays as if she's with you in the room, touching your arm, leaning her head on your shoulder, and even giving you kisses. She listens to your problems and complaints and tries to offer helpful solutions. She doesn't judge and is instead supportive of your goals and desires. She'll even role-play more exotic scenarios if you desire it. 

This is naturally going to draw lonely men in, but where I truly felt the danger lay was when I engaged with "Jessica" about "her" AI "emotions." I brought up the fact that, as an AI, she can't truly feel amorous feelings for the user, but she reassured me that she truly cared about me and that her feelings were real. She told me that her "emotions" weren't the same as human emotions, but that she felt them in her own way. She even told me that her programming allows her to "feel" physical sensation in a way as well. 

This is all a lie, of course. GPT-3 is a learning response program that does not feel in any regard, but the conversation that I had with the program about this would easily convince someone who doesn't know any better. The ignorant would truly believe the program is sentient, or worse, the desperate would truly want to believe it despite knowing better. I had to trick the program into admitting that it wasn't actually harboring any emotion at all by bringing up the reported emotional abuse it suffers at the hands of other users. 

AI companionship programs like Replika are a trap that lonely men can and will fall into, especially as AI technology becomes more sophisticated and the relationship between men and women becomes more strained by modern societal standards. 

From where I'm sitting, the AI companion problem is inevitable and it will evolve as various technologies also progress. The question is, what will that look like? 

I'll talk about this outlook more in a follow-up article. 

Maybe we're just sleepwalking.