Americans Doubt Future Popularity of Virtual Lovers

An artificial intelligence named Samantha strikes up a relationship with a man named Theodore in the 2013 film "Her." Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures In Japan, the seaside resort town of Atami has served as a vacation spot for couples consisting of real men and their virtual girlfriends from the video game series "Love Plus." But a recent survey of future predictions for the year 2036 shows that a majority of American respondents doubt virtual lovers such avatar girlfriends and boyfriends will become commonplace within two decades. Americans seem especially skeptical about the 2036 predictions involving robots, virtual lovers and artificial intelligence. Other predictions deemed "not likely" by a majority of Americans surveyed include the idea of robots outnumbering humans and the first artificial intelligence (AI) machine taking a seat on the board of a major company. The findings came from a survey commissioned by London & Partners and conducted by MG Insight/ YouGov that used a scientific sampling method to get a representative sample of about 2,000 U.S. adults. There may be good reason to be skeptical of some of the expert predictions made by the Imperial College London’s Tech Foresight research team at the annual Tech Foresight showcase event from 2015. What follows is a quick look at the state of the technologies involved in making those robotic and AI predictions come true.