Will artificial intelligence chatbots become our new best friends?

What was once just a feature of science fiction is becoming a normal part of our lives, writes Steven Cutts. What will this mean for the future of human interaction?

The world of tomorrow could include a friend in your pocket (AFP/Getty)

There was a time when the idea of artificial intelligence was confined to the world of distant research labs and little-known technology whizzes. That time has gone. AI-based concepts have slipped into our everyday lives and the division between science fiction, blue sky thinking and billion-dollar start-ups is fast dissolving.

It’s an idea that has been recycled by Hollywood on many occasions, but for many of us it took on a new kind of realism with the 2013 Spike Jonze movie, Her. A generation that was already familiar with online AI chatboxes was suddenly invited to watch a romance between a man and a software package. Set in an age where half the population appears to be linked in by a sort of discrete device in their ear, Her begins to achieve a different kind of resonance. It remains, however, a movie about a sad and lonely man who is falling in love with an inanimate object.

It is a theme explored also in Blade Runner 2045 as the central character, played by Ryan Gosling, has a meaningful relationship with a computer-generated projection, and also in the ”Be Right Back” episode of Black Mirror, in which a girlfriend seeks to use AI and social media to create an imitation of her dead partner.