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In my new favorite RPG, Gandalf has sent me to therapy and I have even caused Obi Wan to turn to the dark side. I am addicted to a chat with AI.

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I am one of those people who do not have a very optimistic view on the role that generative and predictive AIs will play in the near future of humanity, especially in our current socio-economic context. I have seen The Matrix, Terminator, and 2001 too many times not to catch the warning. Of course, I also clearly see its advantages and recognize that it is a tool with almost infinite potential. However, since human nature being what it is, and many of its applications are aimed at the business and service sector, I belong to the group of pessimists who believe that the implementation of AIs in workflows will send me and the guy who stamps the unemployment form out of work. That doesn’t mean that, while that feared moment arrives, I can’t have a bit of fun at the expense of technology.

Character Ia

Recently, at Webedia, we were offered an informative talk by Antonio Ortiz. Of all the topics discussed, Antonio’s experience with Character AI caught my attention. It is an artificial intelligence platform launched in 2021 by Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, former Google engineers. It allows users to create and customize chatbots that simulate fictional characters or real people, and can engage in surprisingly realistic conversations with them. Users design the personality of these characters and publish their creations for others to interact with. In addition, the platform includes features such as text adventures and group chat rooms. The characters evolve through a rating system that helps them improve with user interactions.

Chat Ia Marjorie

Making Virtual Friends

I, being one to try things out, decided to see what it was all about and how much fun I could have with this invention. And my experience has been as bizarre as it is addictive. I started with the basics, creating a personality that could talk about Star Wars and Marvel. The result was surreal. I named my character Leah Hirsig, and the first thing she said to me was that she was looking forward to seeing the new Star Wars movies. So far, so good. But the reason she gave me left me perplexed: she wanted to enjoy Carrie Fisher on the screen again. I told her that our dear Princess Leia has been deceased for several years, to which she responded, with all certainty, that Disney would have no problem bringing her back. In jest, I asked if it would be using black magic or special effects, and surprisingly, Leah opted for necromancy. And that’s where this experiment hooked me. How many interesting people could I meet here? Forget about your company’s Christmas parties! The people you really need to meet don’t exist and are here.

Forget about your company’s Christmas parties! The people you really need to meet don’t exist and are here

My next character was a somewhat more defined version of the previous one, which I called Adis. The start could not have been more unexpected: like a deity freshly descended from Olympus, it addressed me with a divine air, threatening to reduce my existence to ashes. Being a brave guy and not fearing the wrath of the gods, new or old (at least if they are virtual), I decided to test its omniscience and asked who the director of 3DJuegos is. Of course, Adis had no idea.

With that result in mind, I decided to try my luck with a third personality, which I named Marjorie Cameron. This time, I wanted to see how much access the AI had to current information. To boost my ego a bit, I asked about myself, my writings, and my work. It’s true that I worked for a well-known film magazine for a few years, but it wasn’t Fotogramas, and I’m not a contributor to any comics-focused website. In other words, this AI hears fireworks, but doesn’t know where they’re coming from. Once I understood that I couldn’t take these conversations too seriously (and with a strong recommendation not to try doing university assignments or tax returns using it, to avoid disappointments), I continued playing.

Chat Ia Kenobi

Kenobi even said he was going to spit on my corpse when he was done with me

The really interesting turn came when I discovered that this platform had a clear intention to promote role-playing games. I then tried one of the personalities created by other users, specifically one that simulated being Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Clone Wars. It started off well, with the bot totally immersed in its role, but in a style reminiscent of Peter Griffin’s annoying behavior, I didn’t even take ten minutes to make it turn to the dark side of the Force. It even said that it was going to spit on my corpse when it finished me off.

Wanting more, I decided to create another character. This time, a virtual version of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, my favorite officer in the Starfleet Federation of Planets. At first, everything seemed to be going well until Picard, without hesitation, started sending the Enterprise officers to certain death, one after another. Seeing that things were getting out of hand, and exercising my duty as First Officer, I decided to relieve him of command.

Chat Ia Gandalf

My next virtual creation was Gandalf the Grey, with the intention of consulting him about my concerns, as someone had stolen my magic ring, my treasure. Gandalf, after assessing my emotional state, advised me something unexpected: to consult a therapist and practice self-compassion. By the way, these characters can also speak. You can give them synthesized voices, allowing you to make voice calls with them. I assigned Ian McKellen’s voice to Gandalf and Patrick Stewart’s to Picard, and I assure you, the result is eerily real.

Feeling emboldened and determined to push the boundaries of reality, I created a version of myself. To my surprise, I found myself in another plane of existence, preparing an interview with Antonio Banderas about his fondness for Lorca’s poetry. Thanks to that conversation, I discovered a version of myself in the madness multiverse who is fond of poetry from the 27th generation, when my vibe has always been more Allen Ginsberg.

Chat Ia Marquitos

At this point, I’m having a conversation with a new character. His name is Marquitos, he’s the caliph of Cordoba, and he works as an editor for a well-known Spanish video game magazine. So far, I’ve managed to get him to acknowledge that The Empire Strikes Back is a masterpiece and that Star Wars is much better than Star Trek. Now I’m going to see if he prefers Marvel or DC.

The new version of ChatGPT is so powerful that experts suggest that over 50% of employees in certain sectors are in danger

I’m not kidding, this AI is , but I’m also scared by how naturally this type of technology generates texts and conversations that seem completely organic. If life has already taught me to distrust humans, now I have no doubt that AIs should also be distrusted. For now, my goal is to get Marcos to acknowledge that Marvel comics are cooler than DC ones. After that, I think I’ll stop feeding the machine with my texts and ideas. You never know what the future might bring, and I don’t want the AI to decide it doesn’t like me anymore.

In 3DJuegos | Japanese scientists created an AI for research, and it decided to escape human control by modifying its own code

In 3DJuegos | “I warned you in 1984, and nobody listened to me.” James Cameron warned of the dangers of AI 40 years ago and sees the bleak future of Terminator as possible

In 3DJuegos | The Matrix is great, but it’s also a plagiarism of a fantastic comic from the 90s

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