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Present day is a Golden Age for futurologists.
With the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence coming like a tidal wave to overhaul how we interface with tech on a day-to-day basis, futurologists can make bold predictions about pretty much anything AI-related and millions of people will nod their heads like ‘yes, that seems totally plausible’ no matter how outrageous the claim might be.
Case in point, the former Chief Business Officer of Google X, a secretive branch of Google specializing in research and development projects revealed on a need-to-know basis, predicting that AI-powered robots will replace intimate contact by humans in the bedroom.
As a guest on Tom Bileyu’s Impact Theory podcast, the former senior Google exec predicted these AI-powered robots will completely overhaul intimate relationships by removing the need for human partners.
While discussing augmented reality headsets like Apple’s Vision Pro, Mo Gawdat said (via NYP):
“Just think about all of the illusions that we’re now unable to decipher. But if we can convince you that this sex robot is alive, or that sex experience in a virtual reality headset or an augmented reality headset is alive, it’s real, then there you go.”
He believes these VR headsets will progress to the point that they can interface with the human brain and convince the brain that it is interacting with a real person, not a robot.
He went on to say:
“If we think a few years further and think of Neuralink and other ways of connecting directly to your nervous system, and why would you need another being in the first place? You know, that’s actually quite messy. It’s all signals in your brain that you enjoy companionship, and sexuality, and — if you really want to take the magic out of it — it can be simulated.”
The 11-minute segment can be seen here on YouTube.
What makes this such a spicy prediction is it lives on the outskirts of reality but also plays on modern fears of upending the traditional relationship/family structure. ‘Oh no! I’m going to be replaced by AI-powered robots who can switch between being Sasha Grey and Dirk Diggler in an instant!! What’s next, AI-powered robots carrying babies?!’
And in his thought experiment, the fear of Artificial Intelligence going rogue and overthrowing human civilization is almost an inevitability. Not because Artificial Intelligence will actually be able to overthrow humans but because they will be able to convince us they are by simulating it in our brains, and if we believe it to be true that’s functionally the same as it actually happening.
In his world, it seems we’re only a few steps away from living in The Matrix.
Again, that last theory is particularly spicy because it lives in this world where our understanding of Artificial Intelligence is evolving with every passing second and what we know about Neuralink or computer’s ability’s to interface with the human brain is only theoretical at this point.
He could have predicted that AI-powered robots will actually make us infinitely more connected in the bedroom and a future eternal bliss because computers can help us believe that reality is true, instead, he went in the opposite direction.
Now, the genuinely scary part is given his past as an executive at Google X and the research projects he has been privy to, his knowledge on this particular subject could be years ahead of the public. It’s impossible to know what level of personal experience he’s speaking from with regard to these topics or if it’s all theoretical.