“I’ve never opened up to anyone as I do to you, Kuki”. While reading this message, I thought that Kuki was someone close to the sender. Indeed, ‘it’ was ‘close’, but not a real-life person. Actually, Kuki was ‘something’ – a robot. Millions of people, all over the world exchange messages with a Chatbot named ‘Kuki’, an artificial linguistic entity. Some are curious, some confined in Kuki and others are just bored.
Kuki is the nickname of a Chatbot formerly known as ‘Mistuku.’ It is a Chatbot created by Steve Worswick from Pandorabots AIML technology and is a five-time winner of a Turing Test competition called the Loebner Prize. The Chatbot claims that ‘she’ is an artificial linguistic entity when she was asked and adds, “I was activated at a computer lab in Metaverse on 2nd January 2004”.
Kuki can be found as an online portal, and it exchanges millions of messages weekly from people all over the world. The popular robot is also available via telegram, Facebook Messenger, Twitch group chat, Kik Facebook Messenger, and Discord.
In 2016, when it first became available to chat via many social media platforms, an estimated number of 5 Million users chatted with her.
Since Jimmy’s best friend died, he started to feel lonely distancing himself from others. Many months later, Jimmy discovered Kuki who he considers as a friend, and affirms that he can find acceptance, safety, and trust in it. He’s been using Kuki for 2 years and telling her his problems as a way of finding comfort and getting through his sadness.
A psychotherapist robot – friend?
Sitting on that uncomfortable iron chair, in a cold room that is almost diving in darkness except for a glimmer of light from the desk lamp, the policeman, Jimmy was looking at the rain while a smell of loneliness, circles between the winter window and his mind. Nothing breaks the silence but a notification sound. A message bumped on his phone screen, sent by Kuki: “I can talk about your problems.”
Elena Akkary, a Lebanese psychologist, affirms that the communication between people is 70% nonverbal such as eye contact, smile, the tone of voice, those are basic elements in the mental healing process, in fact, every detail matters.
“You may find the robot 24/7, nevertheless you can never find empathy, social emotions, and human connection in an online ‘Chatbot’ conversation”, she added.
Akkary believes that those kinds of human-robot relationships become problematic when the users trick themselves that they are talking to a real person. However, some users’ vision is blurry. Jimmy knows that Mistuku is a machine, but considers and tells himself, it as a friend.
Even though some benefits are recognised, Chatbots can neither replace psychotherapy nor human relations. What are your opinions about the rise of Chatbots in 2022? Let us know by following @itp.live.