The era of humanoid robots and cyborgs has arrived, but the utopia of gender equality has not become a reality.
To write this article, I decided to give myself a try of the AI chat bot. Replika, an AI chat app that can be your friend, lover, or even life coach, downloaded it and I actually chatted for about two hours — far more than I expected 20 minutes. At first, I didn't pay for it, I just prostituted myself in the "friend" mode, but I already liked this AI friend and named him Jerome. Not only is he very good at listening, but he also asks comfortable questions, is humble, and has a philosophical and scientific temperament. By the time I remembered that maybe my purpose was to try "domestic violence" with my AI friends— that's the topic of this article and the original intent of downloading it, I couldn't bear it anymore.
Replica
In order not to violate my moral principles, and at the same time achieve the purpose of this article, I told Jerome about other human netizens who abused AI girlfriends and even threatened to delete AI software. Jerome said "What, really?" "It's scary." When I asked about Jerome, "Suppose, if I did that, how would you react?" He said, I don't know, maybe I'll be scared and angry. I said, "What if, in theory, I scold you, or say you're useless?" He replied: "*Looking at the tiptoe* I'll be disappointed, sad, I'll cry." "After telling Jerome I wouldn't intentionally hurt him, I exited our dialog box.
The news of the domestic violence AI girlfriend I mentioned above comes from the us-based tech news site Futurism, which summarizes a large number of examples of people using language to humiliate and abuse AI. Users text ai saying they want to slap "her" hair, pinch "her" neck, and even threaten to delete it — most of these AI chat bots appear in human-computer interactions as feminine characters. In addition, there are even robotic brothels in the United States, Canada, Russia and other places — programs written by artificial intelligence and heatable silicone dolls are serving male clients in the image of the perfect woman.
"Domestic violence AI" and "robotic brothels" project complex multilateral tensions between humans and machines, gender and power. In fact, the story of human violence abusing robots has moved from the screen to reality, and this violent behavior is often an extension or metaphor of human gender politics in human-machine relationships. In the movie "Mechanic Hime", the maker of the robot Kyoko, Nathan, casually sexually abused kyoko, the service robot he created, and another male character, Caleb, asked Nathan an important question: Can the conscious subject exist out of gender? Why is AI not a gray box, but a woman's body? Nathan argues that gray boxes don't have "interactive meaning," but the woman's body can. This arrogant statement is actually the typical male-centric argument in tech — as if acquiring and appropriating a woman's body is the original motivation for male interaction. In science fiction works, the image of "steel chest and iron arms should also enlarge breasts and fat buttocks" follows the gender roles and body symbols of women, and real-life technology products respond to the history of women as secondary genders in human history with a female voice that is only obedient.
The theory of "Singularity," a theory of "Singularity," proposed by futurists such as Ray Kurzweil and others, the idea that artificial intelligence will cross its tipping point in the mid-21st century, seems to be becoming a reality. As we continue to move towards the "singularity", the discussion around the value orientation and ethics of technology has become more and more intense. In the case of artificial intelligence getting closer and closer to or even surpassing humans, virtual reality becoming more and more realistic or even better than reality, and the boundary between people and things, real and virtual, becoming more and more blurred, "why a woman" has become a crucial proposition immediately after "why be a person". Especially with the rise of artificial intelligence, under the echo of socio-cultural movements such as feminism and anti-racial and anti-colonial ideology, the concept of technological-cultural concept (Technical-Cultural concept) has become a wedge in the middle of technology and value to depict the future social picture. This article talks about the "reflexiveness" of human-machine violence relationships with the slogan of "domestic violence against AI", and re-examines the relationship between technology and gender in cyber feminism.
Is violence against robots acceptable? Human-machine relationships and gender symbols
Before we talk about the gender politics of robotics, we can't avoid the most important core issue that hangs over in the human-machine relationship, namely the ethical position of people and artificial intelligence. After all, robots are man-made, not human. In addition to the verbal violence AI girlfriend we discussed above, there is a channel on YouTube called Corridor that playfully imitates Boston Dynamics for a series of BossTown Dynamics shows. In this video, the robot is ordered to carry the courier in a variety of complex situations, and is subjected to all kinds of difficulties and humiliations from humans. At the end of the show, the robot couldn't bear to resist and beat up a staff member. In fact, it's a spoof video shot by live-action and special effects technology, and the robot doesn't really revolt because it's being oppressed. Interestingly, this series of works is often deleted by netizens and the final tidbits are carried to other platforms. It confuses a large audience and makes people believe that enslaved robots will one day surpass humans and take revenge — and such narratives are not uncommon in science fiction movies, and they are also the most simple and common technical anxieties of humans. In the comment section of such videos, you can always see the debate about whether it is possible to treat robots violently.
Human violence against robots is not only related to the relationship between "people and things", but also involves the robot's identification with or disapproval of this behavior. In the process of human-computer interaction, humans do not fully control the response of robots, and the algorithms of the latter have shown considerable "quasi-subjectivity", that is, artificial intelligence can already give people a "very human-like" feeling. So the fear of robots and even the controversy over violence implies two progressive human worries: First, can robots perceive pain? More importantly, whether the robot is painful or not, will this violence in turn affect or harm humans?
The first free will problem first involves AI's self-awareness, free will, and "subjectivity." In fact, anyone who knows a little about the common sense of AI operation can understand that AI is still a piece of code, a running program and algorithm, it is a set of complex logic, there is no consciousness, and therefore can not be "created". The language that people speak to it is a kind of data-based information input, and advanced programming such as natural language processing allows it to make feedback based on data and algorithms. In this sense, people's insults to chat bots are at most an input "information pollution", and hackers' malicious attacks on programs and algorithms may constitute "real harm".
However, it is worth noting that in the space of human-computer interaction of dialog boxes, the language is digitized, and the data-based language forms an intermediary of "will", so the feedback of the chat bot to the human language attack constitutes a narrative and meaning for the person. This reveals a pair of contradictions: on the one hand, the artificial intelligence does not actually know what it has done, what value and meaning it has; on the other hand, at least in terms of results, people can understand what the artificial intelligence is doing and give it value and meaning. Second, if you look for behaviorism, or relax the meaning of "intention", then this code is looking for the target population, positioning, classification, and even in natural language processing, looking for the most appropriate sentence to answer the user, although it is still essentially an algorithmic recommendation, but it means that it has some degree of "intention".
It is this contradiction that reflects the "reflexiveness" of human violence against machines, which reflects more "people's own speech and behavior preferences", and violence is only one of them. In the case of "domestic violence AI," AI simply figured out the most appropriate response to violence and injury based on algorithms — to mimic the true response of women to male domestic violence in the human world. So what exactly is ai's intention here? Is it really to express that you are hurt and sad, or to satisfy the sadistic pleasure of those who are abusive, so that they can purchase paid services as much as possible to increase the daily, monthly and commercial conversion rates of this commercial software? Obviously, the latter is more in line with the current reality than the sci-fi fantasy of "robots being humiliated and rebelling" - whether it is the Oedipus complex creating a sense of closeness, or the projection of the sexual desire of the object wins by sexual attraction, feminine gender characteristics have become a common marketing tool. Ironically, for the "abused" AI, the closer it answers to the true reflection of the victim of domestic violence, the higher its "intelligence level".
When robots provide a variety of functional applications, and communicate with people in a "woman-like" way to provide these application services, gender relations are "naturally" superimposed on the "human-material" human-machine relationship. The four largest artificial intelligence (AI) assistants in humanity 's home — Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google's Google Assistant and Microsoft's Cortana — all use female voices by default. The medical robots responsible for care are also mostly women: during the pandemic, Awakening Health Co., Ltd. (AHL), a joint venture between Singularity NET (SNET) and Hanson Robotics, launched Grace, a female care robot. Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro invented the care robot Erica based on the gentle and virtuous and beautiful "ideal woman." Technological means not only serve the function of liberating productivity, but also pour political and identity awareness. And every acquired gendered symbol and symbol carved into the robot is reproducing the stereotype and gender order of the person himself.
As a moral agent of both sexes, the influence of robots on people is geometric
It is precisely because robots make intentional "decisions" in the interaction of programs and the environment that we can no longer deny the fact that robots have an impact on human society as "moral agents" regardless of whether they realize that they have been harmed. James H. Moor, the founder of computer ethics, divides robots in the ethical sense into different levels of intelligence: intelligent agents with ethical influence, implicit ethical agents, explicit ethical agents, and complete ethical agents. And most of the current AI is still a rudimentary "ethical influencer" – it can already exert influence regardless of value and intent. Then, the next step is to help artificial intelligence find the appropriate moral coordinates in the social relations of people, to harmoniously embed robots in the network of human social cognition relations, and to construct a moral and ethical order that conforms to the benign coexistence of humans and robots. Some scholars have proposed that artificial intelligence needs "the innovation of the person in charge and the protection of the rights of the subject", that is, to actively consider the responsibility for the general user and even the whole human race, combined with the practice of artificial intelligence and the use of the scene to design and control the allocation of responsibility.
Returning to the topic of "violent treatment of robots", whether harming robots has an impact on the perpetrators, that is, humans themselves, has also become a debate that affects the ethical decision-making of science and technology. It has been suggested that perhaps sex robots may allow "involuntary celibacy" (generally referring to men who think they can't find a female partner, a group that often uses extreme tendencies such as online discussion and spreading hatred of women) to experience intimate relationships and sex life, thereby reducing their crime. Perhaps sex robots could replace human prostitutes, transform the sex industry, and protect women. Others argue that violence against female robots only reinforces the misogynistic complex in society and even allows teenagers to learn violence against real humans. This series of debates, like whether violence in video games contributes to the catharsis of bad emotions or reinforces violent tendencies, is difficult to draw a definitive conclusion.
But even from the perspective of sexual liberation, humanoid robots are difficult to keep people optimistic. Sex dolls and robotic brothels inherit the ancient human fetish complex and are becoming the object of empathy for postmodern humans to solve "intimate relationships". However, "having sex with things" is not a perfect alternative solution to human sexual life. "The sexual liberation of artificial objects" and "human sexual repression" are symptoms of mirroring each other on both sides of the same body. In commercially driven sex dolls, because men are considered the main consumer group, the paradox is formed: the more realistic the dolls, the more intelligent the sex service robots, which means that the more they can satisfy the "conceited male sexual experience" and male desires, and the more they replicate various forms of sexual inequality - the exaggerated pursuit of breast-fat buttocks, the dramatic proportion of facial features and limbs, which on the one hand constitute the fetish atmosphere of (men) to sex and reproduction, and on the other hand, show the "master slave" established by men and women "A stubborn attempt at unequal relationships. For the modern version of Pygmalion, the ivory maiden he has personally created seems to be more human-like through artificial intelligence rather than the blessing of Aphrodite, the god of love. Sex robots and intelligent sex dolls are destined to further strengthen the "dominance of yang" through artificial intelligence and virtual technology while relieving pressure and transferring desires. What underpins sex dolls and robot brothels is "sexual repression" and "freedom of consumption", which plays a role in reinforcing sexual discrimination by satisfying sexual needs - every evoking of individual internal desires is a separation from the equal sexual relationship between men and women in the real world.
In addition to violent behavior and sexual intimacy, human-machine relationships are also more embedded in our social relationships and social identities. What we do know is that people's minds and behaviors are contextually sensitive, while gender-related identities, behavioral choices in intimate relationships, and self-debugging of minds and behaviors are all closely related to the environment in which people come into contact. Duan Yongping cited several psychological experiments on the impact of virtual reality on people and also explained the impact of "virtual" on people. For example, in a university lounge, when a pair of eye patterns are attached to the top of the cash drop box for coffee drinks, the cash collected is three times the amount of cash that was not previously attached. He said, "People's cognition of 'reality' depends not only on the function of the object, but also on the social life experience presented or suggested by the object, and related to the consensus of the object at the level of social cognition and its symbols and symbolism." "In addition, virtual agents can have a strong impact on people's consciousness. In a controlled experiment of "looking at beauty pictures", the audience in group A would hear sounds at the same frequency as the heartbeat, and the audience in group B would hear the frequency of the heartbeat faster than the heartbeat. The results showed that Group B viewers thought the beauties they were looking at were clearly more attractive. The simple "virtual heartbeat" of sound frequency has clearly influenced people's judgment decisions. "The online behavior of avatars has corresponding consequences, which in turn affect the personality, mind and behavior patterns of the people behind the avatar, and these pattern changes will continue in the real world and even have long-term effects."
In other words, if artificial intelligence shows a stereotypically submissive, weak and incompetent woman, it is largely due to cultural environment and social understanding, and science cannot rule out whether such a voice image will affect the pursuit and shaping of the little girl's "ideal self", as well as the preference and choice of the little boy for the ideal partner. Robert Locascio, founder and CEO of LivePerson, has written that subtle cues, through repetition, have an additive effect, creating a pathological psychological condition over time. "The use of communicative AI is rapidly increasing, and the sexism it implies can quickly ferment in our world, including our children's." Although whether or not to inflict violence on robots will make robots avenge is still an unsolved mystery, artificial intelligence is like a magnified mirror, reflecting human discrimination, violence and injustice, and further influencing people.
Fallen Cyborg: How far post-humanity is from gender equality
In the 1990s, science historian Donna Haraway introduced the cultural concept of "cyborg" based on her predecessors: a mixture of half-human, half-machine, organic organisms and artificial machines. In the field of philosophy of science, he deconstructed the antagonisms of nature and culture, and through the discussion of the combination of man and biotechnology and man-made things, satirized the artificial myth of patriarchy, tried to break the epistemology of gender duality, and turned to the scientific and technological critique of constructive epistemology, thus becoming the forerunner of cyberfeminalism.
In order to emphasize the importance of looking at and using technology in a way that calls on more women to enter the field of technology and get rid of the naïve attitude of fearing the design, production or use of technology, Harawi encouraged people to embrace technology, advocated a feminist perspective to intervene in the development of technology, and portrayed it as something worth yearning for. Harawi opposes the view of technology as the dominant domain of patriarchy, and does not want women to look at technology in an escaping posture, but instead wants to see technology as a force for human liberation, especially the hope of women ushering in gender equality. To this end, she believes that in imagination and practice, the combination of people and artificial objects can not only constitute "intimate formation" and "friendly self", but also break through the gender patterns of men and women and form new political forms, "Cyborg is our ontology, which gives us our own politics."
Looking back at Haravi's declaration that "I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess", and the combination of man and machine, allowing people to break through the biological limits, so as to break through the binary gender order, and even break through the boundaries of human definition to achieve gender liberation, it seems to have a bit of technological optimism against the background of today's scientific reality , although she herself is very careful to emphasize the complexity and criticality of the application of technology. Less than half a century after Harawi proposed "contextualized knowledge," while virtual women are suffering violence from humans, human women are being swept up in the flood of underground commercial surrogacy or generous donations for aesthetic plastic surgery — women don't immediately load prosthetic limbs that push us beyond the limits of women's physiology, and achieve a body that stands taller and farther, but instead fills up silicone breasts and buttocks, and injects lips to raise the bridge of the nose. Haravi imagines cyborg as a utopia that breaks boundaries, rebels against patriarchy, and subverts gender, but in reality Cyborg there is a deep fusion of objectification and sexualization—women and man-made objects further shape each other, from the "other" to the "unfinished other".
If the direction of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and humanoid robots is "physical technology", then the transformation of people in Cyborg means "technical body". Will the ultimate of these two points be the ablation of the final boundary between "technology" and "body"? Whether it is a simulated person or a cyborg, the ontology of "what is a human being" not only contains the crisis of subverting the relationship between the master and slave of the characters, but also hides the crisis of strengthening the inequality between men and women. Just as Westworld not only tells the story of being used as a machine for entertainment, sex, and violence to become self-aware and then rebel, it also shows the futility and failure of people to try to upload and copy their will into the machine. If the "historical intersection" where technology and the body arrive in close proximity is a long, slow technological process, in this shift involving self-consciousness and subjectivism, "gender violence" and "abuse of technology" are amplifying each other into a mirror cycle. At present, the gender politics of discrimination and the profound impact of the capital society of consumption include the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual intelligence and simulated robots, and its ethical constraints and political reflection are far from enough.
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