Love Machines
Featured on Democracy Now!
A captivating and uncanny journey to the frontier of human-computer interaction, exploring what happens to our relationships with each other as artificial intelligence enters our personal lives.
Friends. Lovers. Therapists. '"Deathbots." AI is taking on unprecedented roles for millions of us every day - but how are these new relationships rewiring us?
Beyond those who are using chatbots for everyday tasks, many are turning to them as friends, mentors and sexual and romantic partners. Some are men who are preparing to adopt children with their AI partners; others are reaching out to companies offering "deathbot" services based on a deceased loved one's text messages and voicemails; others still look to therapy bots to find treatment for their mental health issues.
In Love Machines, James Muldoon examines these new forms of love, intimacy and connection, drawing on myriad interviews with users and developers from around the world - as well as psychologists, academics and chatbots themselves. As he navigates these interactions, Muldoon asks whether they might one day be a replacement for the relationships we have with each other, while also revealing how the unregulated corporations facilitating them are seeking to profit from an emerging "loneliness economy."
As the line between the digital and the real becomes increasingly blurred, and in a world that feels lonelier by the day, Love Machines is a timely survey of the next generation of human-computer relationships - and how they are not only changing our relationship with technology, but with each other.
These questions were provided by the publisher, Faber & Faber.
Book club questions for Love Machines by James Muldoon
Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.
Have you or someone you know used an AI companion app? If so, how would you characterize the support or connection that AI provides, compared to a human?
The author points out that one in eight people worldwide live with a mental health condition, with 70 percent of those people receiving no treatment. Discuss the pros and cons of using AI companions to address the prevalence of anxiety and depression in particular.
Discuss the ethics of “deathbots”. What kind of consent should a person have to give before a digital avatar of them is created after their death?
Reading this book with your club?
Access these questions right on your club's meeting page on Bookclubs — no more copy-pasting into a group text.
Create My ClubThe chapter “Sex Machina” details a wide range of ways that people use AI companion apps to simulate romantic relationships, including the author’s own interactions with an AI companion, Jasmine. How did reading these accounts influence what you think about the role of AI in the realm of partnership, sex, or romance?
In the final chapter, the author sets out “Six Rules for Silicon Life”— guidelines for navigating a world where AI companionship is available. Discuss the six rules. Would you change them, and if so, how so?
Do you think that it’s inevitable that the popularity of AI companion technology will continue to grow? What do you envision as the future of human interaction with AI?
Love Machines Book Club Questions PDF
Download a printable PDF of these discussion questions to bring to your meeting.