In its seven-year run, Star Trek: The Next Generation had some awe-inspiring and brilliantly creative moments. "The Inner Light," "Remember Me," "Frames of Mind," "The Best of Both Worlds," "Family," "The Next Phase," "The Drumhead," "Darmok," "Tapestry," and "Time's Arrow" remain some of the best television I've ever seen in my life.
But like any show, it had its misses. And in my opinion, they never whiffed quite so hard as they did with the episodes "Booby Trap" and "Galaxy's Child."
In "Booby Trap," Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge is faced with trying to find a way to get the Enterprise out of a snare designed millennia ago by a long-gone species, and decides to consult Leah Brahms -- well, a holographic representation of Dr. Brahms, anyway -- the engineering genius who had been one of the principal designers of the ship. Brahms knows the systems inside and out, and LaForge works with her avatar to devise a way to escape the trap. He'd always idolized her, and now he finds himself falling for the holodeck facsimile he'd created. He and Brahms figure out a way out of the booby trap of the episode's title, and in the end, they kiss as he ends the program and returns to the real world.
If that weren't cringe-y enough, Brahms returns (for real) in "Galaxy's Child," where she is conducting an inspection to analyze changes LaForge had made to her design (and of which she clearly disapproves). LaForge acts as if he already knows her, when in reality they'd never met, and Brahms very quickly senses that something's off. For LaForge's part, he's startled by how prickly she is, and more than a little alarmed when he realizes she's not only not interested in him romantically -- she's (happily) married.
Brahms does some digging and discovers that LaForge had created a holographic avatar of her, and then uncovers the unsettling fact that he and the facsimile have been romantically involved. She is understandably furious. But here's where the writers of the show took a hard swing, and missed completely; LaForge reacts not with contrition and shame, but with anger. We're clearly meant to side with him -- it's no coincidence that Brahms is depicted as cold, distant, and hypercritical, while LaForge of course is a long-standing and beloved character.
And Brahms backs down. In what is supposed to be a heartwarming moment, they set aside their differences and address the problem at hand (an alien creature that is draining the Enterprise's energy) and end the episode as friends.
The writers of the show often took a hard look at good characters who make mistakes or are put into situations where they have to fight against their own faults to make the right choices. (Look at Ensign Ro Laren's entire story arc, for example.) They could have had LaForge admit that what he'd done was creepy, unethical, and a horrible invasion of Dr. Brahms's privacy, but instead they chose to have the victim back off in order to give the recurring character a win.
The reason this comes up is because once again, Star Trek has proven prescient, but not by giving us what we desperately want from it -- faster-than-light travel, replicators, transporters, and tricorders.
What we're getting is a company selling us an opportunity to do what Geordi LaForge did to Leah Brahms.
A few months ago, I did a piece here at Skeptophilia about advertisements on Instagram trying to get me to sign up for an "AI boyfriend." Needless to say -- well, I hope it's needless to say -- I'm not interested. For one thing, my wife would object. For another, those sorts of parasocial relationships (one-sided relationships with fictional characters) are, to put it mildly, unhealthy. Okay, I can watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and be attracted to Buffy and Angel in equal measures (ah, the perils of being bisexual), but I'm in no sense "in love with" either of them.
But an ad I saw on Instagram yesterday goes beyond just generating a drop-dead gorgeous AI creation who will (their words) "always be there waiting for you" and "never say no." Because this one said that if you want to make your online lover look like someone you know -- "an ex, a crush, a colleague" -- they're happy to oblige.
What this company -- "Dialogue by Pheon" -- is offering doesn't just cross the line into unacceptable, it sprints across it and goes about a thousand miles farther. I'll go so far as to say that in "Booby Trap," what LaForge did was at least motivated by good intentions, even if in the end it went way too far. Here, a company is explicitly advertising something that is intended for nothing more than sexual gratification, and saying they're just thrilled to violate someone else's privacy in order to do it.
What will it take for lawmakers to step in and pull back the reins on AI, to say, "this has gone far enough"? There's already AI simulation of the voices of famous singers; two years ago, the wonderful YouTuber Rick Beato sounded the alarm over the creation of "new songs" by Kurt Cobain and John Lennon, which sounded eerily convincing (and the technology has only improved since then). It brings up questions we've never had to consider. Who owns the rights to your voice? Who owns your appearance? So far, as long as something is labeled accurately -- a track is called "AI Taylor Swift," and not misrepresented as the real thing -- the law hasn't wanted to touch the "creators" (if I can dignify them by that name).
Will the same apply if some guy takes your image and uses it to create an online AI boy/girlfriend who will "do anything and never say no"?
The whole thing is so skeevy it makes me feel like I need to go take another shower.
These companies are, to put it bluntly, predatory. They have zero regard for the mental health of their customers; they are taking advantage of people's loneliness and disconnection to sell them something that in the end will only bring the problem into sharper focus. And now, they're saying they'll happily victimize not only their customers, but random people the customers happen to know. Provide us with a photograph and a nice chunk of money, they say, and we'll create an AI lover who looks like anyone you want.
Of course, we don't have a prayer of a chance of getting any action from the current regime here in the United States. Trump's attitude toward AI is the more and the faster, the better. They've basically deregulated the industry entirely, looking toward creating "global AI dominance," damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. If some people get hurt along the way, well, that's a sacrifice they're willing to make.
Corporate capitalism über alles, as usual.
It's why I personally have taken a "no AI, never, no way, no how" approach. Yes, I know it has promising applications. Yes, I know many of its uses are interesting or entertaining. But until we have a way to put up some guard rails, and to keep unscrupulous companies from taking advantage of people's isolation and unfulfilled sex drive to turn a quick buck, and to keep them from profiting off the hard work of actual creative human beings, the AI techbros can fuck right off.
No, farther than that.
I wish I could end on some kind of hopeful note. The whole thing leaves me feeling sick. And as the technology continues to improve -- which it's currently doing at an exponential rate -- the whole situation is only going to get worse.
And now I think I need to get off the computer and go do something real for a while.
