AI Kids are Coming

How they will fail, or at least be no more than a novelty

AI robots are coming for our kids.

Why have a child who argues and prevents you from going to a movie with your wife when you can just have an AI kid that you can shut off and leave in the kitchen? Or even better, have it clean the kitchen while you have your date night.

This is the scenario Tom Bilyeu described in his discussion with Marc Andreessen. Tom put it forth as a likely scenario that would be attractive to some sizable group of people and I have no doubt that it will definitely be something that some do. But I don’t believe that its failure will come from outside of the circle of people who choose something like this. It won’t be religious fundamentalists who tear down these “abominations”. The owners themselves will in one way or another fail and abandon this novelty.

The reason it will fail is because these kids require no sacrifice.

As soon as Tom mentioned the ability to shut it off and go on a date with his wife, I knew what the problem would be. Human beings have a longing for that which is greater than themselves. We most often see that expressed in the motif of sacrifice.

As children and adolescents, we sacrifice parts of ourselves in order to fit in to a social group.