In the movie Her, Joaquin Phoenix plays a lonely heart who develops feelings for the futuristic virtual assistant on his phone, voiced by a captivatingly sensuous Scarlett Johansson. Now, it seems life is imitating art as netizens are joking about fancying the new iteration of ChatGPT.
Announced this week, GPT-4o is supposed to be a more intelligent take on the digital helpers that were all the rage a decade ago. Think Siri, if it could hold a convo (and ‘see’ through your camera). Just like Apple did with its assistant, OpenAI has humanised the new bot with a female voice that sounds as curious and attentive as Johansson’s digital alter-ego.
“Hey ChatGPT, what happened last night?” pic.twitter.com/UZIAFyCSsB
— Jack Forge (@TheJackForge) May 13, 2024
How did the internet react? Judging by the sordid memes that followed the bot’s unveiling, probably a bit too enthusiastically by polite standards. People on X (formerly Twitter) are joshing about falling in love, and even into bed, with the robotic chatterbox – someone pass the screen wipes! Others are thinking of how they’ll explain their bizarre new crush to the world, and their partners (we’d love to be a fly on the wall for that awkward exchange). While some just want the bot to tone down the sultriness so they can get on with their work.
Babe she’s just a chatbot I swear pic.twitter.com/QUp7kAGz89
— Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin) May 13, 2024
The unhinged memes feature the internet’s favourite pop culture icons, from fictional maniac Patrick Bateman to sad Ben Affleck. And, of course, there are numerous references to Phoenix and Johansson’s characters in Her. In a standout tweet, the latter’s memorable spoof of Republican senator Katie Britt on Saturday Night Live is refashioned to mock ChatGPT’s “overly seductive” tone.
<literally any request at all>
— bayes (@bayeslord) May 13, 2024
gpt4o: https://t.co/2hOwT37uPr pic.twitter.com/GvrNeSzWUr
But, is it all just a bit of harmless fun or is this a portent of our collective dystopian fate? In a world where AI girlfriends exist, and influencers are creating digital replicas of themselves to satiate overstimulated fans, it seems reality is getting closer to an episode of Black Mirror with every passing day.
I should prompt her. pic.twitter.com/i5JLoYj30C
— Bojan Tunguz (@tunguz) May 13, 2024
The carnal feedback probably won’t come as much of a surprise to OpenAI. The poster child for modern AI is keenly aware of the ways its tech is being reappropriated to cater to our loneliness epidemic. It was only a few months ago that OpenAI began taking down a slew of user-made robotic companions from its app store. At the time, the company said it automatically removes tools in violation of its usage policies, which ban intimacy bots.
shinzo abe in heaven watching birth rates plummet because gpt-4o has the scarlett johansson voice pic.twitter.com/VLY5df9700
— sophie (@netcapgirl) May 13, 2024
By contrast, the new ChatGPT is entirely innocent – though that hasn’t stopped the randiest parts of the internet from projecting their NSFW desires onto the hapless bot.
On a serious note, some are more critical of the bot’s feminine depiction. By opting for what they claim is an eager and servile women’s voice, they suggest the bot is another tone-deaf by-product from a male-skewing tech industry.
Anyone else find this voice super cringey? It's like a nerd's imagination of the fun quirky girlfriend trained on porn voices. https://t.co/Y4gyJDjFuM
— Bryan Marble (@LostMahbles) May 14, 2024
The disapproval echoes the concern over the effects of bias in AI research and the way this could shape our conditioning as a society, especially younger users who are growing up with the tech. In respect to digital assistants, a UN report from 2019 found that the default female voices used by the bots reinforce harmful gender stereotypes.
Still, it’s important to note that this was just a demo, and there’s nothing stopping OpenAI from introducing a choice of vocals when the bot becomes more widely available. That’s exactly what Apple did with Siri, introducing a more diverse range of voices in the years following its launch, including a gender-neutral option in 2022.
