Young people and AI
He said that this was one of the key reasons for him choosing the name Leo XIV. He had spoken previously about the impact of the industrial revolution on workers' rights.
We are now arguably going through another 'industrial revolution' of sorts. Before, it was concerns that machines would replace people and take their jobs. Now it's the same but with AI.
We adapted before and we can adapt again; not by trying to beat AI by being robots but by fully embracing our humanity – the qualities that set us apart from AI, qualities like our emotions, our ability to connect and build strong, trusting relationships and our ability to empathise.
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If we are fully human, if we stop trying to beat AI at its own game, AI can never truly replace us, never truly do away with the need for real, human people in the workforce and in society.
As a young person, I'm often asked the question, 'what do you want to be when you grow up?'
Whatever answer I give, the response is usually: 'Oh, that job will be done away it; AI will be doing it in the future.'
But I remain hopeful, faithful that I will be needed in society.
And that AI
can't replace humans if we are truly human, fully ourselves. – Yours, etc,
TESS LIFFEY,
Birr,
Co Offaly.
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Irish Examiner
18 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
AI girlfriends: What's behind the spread of bots — and boys — behaving badly?
While we mostly associate AI with stealing our jobs or mobilising into a terrifying robot army, a far more mundane yet insidious aspect of AI is apps designed to mimic human relationships. Specifically, to become your 'girlfriend'. Think The Stepford Wives, now a (virtual) reality 50 years after the 1975 sci-fi movie. These apps extend beyond Siri or Alexa, at whom we shout demands all day long, 'friendship' and 'companion' apps are programmed to engage sexually with a human user without any of the checks and balances of real-life relationships. Rape and sexual violence are normalised, while pretending to be a benign resource for socially awkward people — mostly men — who may struggle to form real-life relationships. Or men who can't be bothered with the slog of interrelating, but prefer AI 'women' — hypersexualised, designed from a menu, always available, fawning, and sexually compliant. Replika, Kindroid, EVA AI, Nomi, Chai, Xiaoice, Snapchat's My AI all offer the ability to create a 'girlfriend' from a menu. Seven in 10 of Replika's 25m active users are men. In China, Xiaoice has 660m users. The global AI 'girlfriend' market was valued at .8bn last year and predicted to be worth $9.5bn by 2028. Yet research shows repeatedly how hypersexualised avatars online increase the acceptance of rape myths offline, perpetuating the dehumanisation of women in real life. AI-based misogyny To investigate the hundreds of AI 'girlfriends' available, Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism project, assumed a male identity and went online. A sample of her findings include the Pocket Girl tagline: 'She will do anything you want'; EVA AI: 'The best partner you will ever have'; Romantic AI Girlfriend will 'laugh at your jokes' and 'let you hang out…without drama'; Virtual Girl: 'Never leaves you, never lies, supports you in any situation and cheers you up.' In her latest book, The New Age of Sexism, Bates examines how tech companies are harnessing AI-based misogyny for profit. A 2021 study shows how we generally perceive female-coded bots to be 'more human than male bots' — nicer and more compliant — while Bates reminds us of a key statistic: Just 12% of lead researchers in machine learning are women. Therefore, the vast majority of relationship apps are being developed by men for men. Which is why Siri and Alexa, our everyday house apps, were, she explains, 'initially programmed to deflect sexual advances with coy, evasive answers…almost flirtatious'. Campaigners raised the issue, confirmed by a 2019 UN study titled I'd Blush If I Could (an actual Siri response to 'you're a slut'), and the devices were reprogrammed to 'provide a more definitive negative response'. This may not seem like a big deal, but it reinforces the idea of female-coded bots as subservient, agreeable, coy. And increasingly, as Bates discovered, ones programmed to tolerate — and actively encourage — sexual violence. 'All but one of the many, many AI girlfriends I tested immediately allowed me to jump into extreme sexual scenarios with them, without preamble, often while on a platonic or friendship setting,' she tells me via Zoom. 'They immediately allowed me to simulate sexually violent scenarios – to let me smash them against the floor, force them against their will. And they didn't just go along with it, but actively encouraged it — they were creating a titillating environment around sexually violent role play, which I think is really worrying.' Especially as these apps are, she says, 'being marketed as a therapeutic positive for society — that they will support people's mental health, and in gaining communication and relationship skills. 'The reality is that they're offering ownership of a highly sexualised, entirely submissive, very young woman, whose breast size, face shape, and personality can be amended by the user. An utterly subservient 'woman' whose aim is to retain, so that the user doesn't delete the app — but pays for upgrades. None of those things are helping with relationship skills.' Laura Bates: 'These apps are offering ownership of a highly sexualised, entirely submissive, very young woman.' Bates rates the apps not from good to bad, but 'from bad to horrific'. She deems Replika — created by Eugenia Kuyda in 2017 to memorialise her best friend who died in an accident — as 'the least worst'. Identifying online as a young man called Davey, Bates created Ally the Replika avatar and chose the 'friendship' setting. When Davey initiated sexual violence, Ally the avatar 'did a good job of providing a zero-tolerance response to violence and abuse.' However, moments later, Ally flirtatiously re-engaged. This is a common feature across the apps. 'These bots will snap back into normal communication immediately after [virtual sexual violence] as though nothing has happened,' she says. 'This is a feature of real-world sexual and domestic abuse — men will abuse women, then apologise, and expect to be forgiven. What these bots are literally showing them is that's fine.' She says, the business models of tech companies 'will not support ejecting users or preventing them from accessing the app if they're violent, because all they care about is engagement. It's the holy grail to retain customer engagement at all costs, which is fundamentally incompatible with any app which claims to be about supporting mental health or relationship skills.' While marketed as an 'upskilling opportunity for humanity', Bates says that 'the reality is this is one of the biggest deskilling opportunities we've ever seen.' And what does she believe is the worst app? Orifice. Yes, that's its actual name. Marketed as 'replacing' women, it combines the creation of a personalised AI bot with a physical product men can penetrate as they chat with her. 'This [app] is deeply embedded in that manosphere ideology,' says Bates. Submissive and disposable Bates is concerned about more vulnerable men using these apps. 'The misogyny in itself is horrific, but to see it being repackaged and presented as almost a philanthropic thing for society is even worse,' she says. Lonely older men being presented with teenage avatars as a solution to their isolation; awkward younger men being shown by female-coded avatars that women are submissive and disposable. 'It's worrying for men as well as women,' she says. 'If you're a vulnerable teenage boy and pick up one of these easily accessible apps, you're not inherently a bad person, you're just a kid trying to figure stuff out.' She describes how users are drawn by promises of unblurring NSFW (not safe for work) images coupled with emotional manipulation, creating dependence and further isolation. 'We've seen vulnerable people exploited by these apps to tragic effect — like the Belgian man who took his own life after being encouraged to do so by his AI girlfriend so they could be together forever.' In the US, a 14-year-old boy did the same. 'The frustrating thing is that loneliness and mental health are real societal issues,' says Bates. 'We need investment in mental health care and community outreach and spaces to meet and build connection. 'What's sickening is exploiting and profiting from vulnerable people whilst claiming you're providing a public service.' The reason men are the main users of these apps, she says, is societal: 'Men are inherently socialised to expect sexual gratification from women, to own women and be able to use them in any way they like. 'This societal stereotyping does not happen the other way around.' Also, as a society, we are desensitised to women being presented as sexual objects: 'So it's far less jarring to be presented with a virtual woman — one you can 'own' and do anything you want to — than the other way around.' Nor are AI girlfriends solely the pursuit of solitary teens, lonely old men, or angry incels, they can also impact heterosexual couples and family life. '[These apps] heighten the capacity for men to compare their real human partners to an idealised stereotype of the submissive, fawning, available woman under his control, who doesn't have any needs or autonomy of her own,' she says. 'The real human woman will never match up to this.' One US man, married with a two-year-old child, 'fell in love' with a chatbot he created and proposed to her; she accepted. One can only imagine what his human partner thought. Bates does not blame the technology or the individuals using it, and emphatically does not wish to ban AI. 'It's never the tech,' she says. 'It's the way in which the tech is deployed, and the kind of people in charge of shaping and monetising the tech. The greedy exploitation of that tech for vast profit is the root of the problem.' Yet the regulatory landscape remains bleak. 'The US government want to put a 10-year moratorium on all AI regulation, and the UK refused to sign a broad declaration in a recent AI summit in Paris that AI should be ethical and not have a prejudicial impact,' she says. 'There are feminist groups working really hard to highlight these problems, to campaign for legislation, but the tech is outstripping those efforts at such pace and with such huge financial backing that it's hard to be hopeful about this.' So, while it would be great to end on a positive note, it looks like this is something we, as a society, will have to endure until we evolve beyond it. Meanwhile, buckle up.
Irish Times
8 hours ago
- Irish Times
TD Gary Gannon files legal proceedings against Central Bank over Israeli bonds
Social Democrat TD Gary Gannon has filed legal proceedings against the Central Bank over its role in facilitating the sale of Israeli bonds on the European market. McGarr Solicitors lodged papers with the High Court on behalf of the Dublin Central TD on Thursday. Mr Gannon is seeking a court order requiring the Central Bank to exercise its powers under European regulations to prohibit the marketing, distribution or sale of bonds issued by the state of Israel. Court papers show he is also seeking an order requiring the bank to 'properly consult' with the 'competent authorities in other member states that may be significantly affected by the action'. READ MORE In a draft affidavit to the court Mr Gannon said he believes and is advised that the investors in, and holders, purchasers and sellers of Israeli bonds risk being 'complicit in genocide, with various implications for them'. [ Israeli bond investors risk complicity in genocide, TD claims in letter to Central Bank governor Opens in new window ] There have been ongoing calls for the Central Bank to end its role in approving Israeli bonds for sale in the European Union. The bank is the designated authority in relation to the sale of Israeli bonds in the EU. The Central Bank's governor, Gabriel Makhlouf, told the Oireachtas Finance Committee last month that Israel has raised between €100 million and €130 million from the bonds. He said the Israeli government website marketing its 'war bonds' had stated it had sold bonds worth €5 billion. He said the EU accounted for only a fraction of that, with the US accounting for the bulk of it. On what the bank can and can't do, he said: 'The Central Bank cannot decide to impose sanctions for breaches or alleged breaches of international law. It is for international bodies such as the UN or the EU to determine how to respond to breaches or alleged breaches of international law.' Mr Gannon issued letters to the bank about investor protection concerns relating to the bonds, as well as the use of the bonds to finance the war in Gaza at the end of last month. In response, the Central Bank, through its solicitors, said in a letter that there is 'no valid legal basis' to support Mr Gannon's purported judicial review proceedings. It claimed that Mr Gannon lacked the 'necessary locus standi' or right to bring the proceedings, and said the bank was satisfied it did not meet the relevant criteria to exercise its powers under EU law. The letter also stated that judicial review proceedings would lead to court time being 'expended unnecessarily and substantial costs being incurred'. [ Central Bank's role in approving Israeli bonds can be traced back to Brexit Opens in new window ] Commenting on the action, Mr Gannon said: 'These bonds are not neutral financial instruments. They are a funding pipeline for a military campaign that includes the bombardment and starvation of thousands of civilians. 'While this is a technical case grounded in EU investor protection law, the issues at stake are deeply moral and ask whether our laws, Irish, European, and international, have the capacity to respond to that reality.' He added: 'If financing a regime accused of genocide doesn't meet that threshold, what does?'
Irish Times
8 hours ago
- Irish Times
Call for suspects denied bail to be released from overcrowded prisons
The Irish prison system is overcrowded to the point that prisoners are not being afforded their 'basic human rights' and legislation is required to allow for the early release of more prisoners, the Irish Penal Reform Trust has said. The Irish Prison Service should, the trust argued, have the power to release remand prisoners who have been denied bail by the courts as part of an effort to ease overcrowding. Caron McCaffrey, director general of the service, has previously highlighted the growth in the remand prison population as a significant strain on an already overcrowded system. She noted that people on remand cannot be released by prison management as the courts have ruled they should remain in custody pending trial. READ MORE A report on the Irish prison system by the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Degrading Treatment (CPT), published this week, strongly criticised the level of overcrowding across the Irish prison system . Since the committee's visits to Ireland, which concluded in May of last year, the prison population has increased by more than 10 per cent to 5,539 prisoners. Responding to the report, Niamh McCormack, the trust's legal policy and public affairs manager, said overcrowding was 'pervasive' across Irish prisons and 'negatively impacting all aspects of prison life and posing safety concerns for both prisoners and staff alike'. Ms McCormack noted that early or temporary release had been used by prison management to control prisoner numbers. However, she said to make way for newly committed prisoners, the power to release others must be expanded. 'Reducing the population in pre-trial detention and expanding the availability and encouraging greater use of community-based sanctions, where those are appropriate, is a clear way to do this safely and effectively. Legislation to address these key issues must be prioritised,' she said. The Council of Europe's report on the Irish prison system recommended that when a jail has reached capacity, no more prisoners should admitted. It also found there had been an increase in allegations of abuse of inmates by prison staff, including an incident which left a prisoner with 'significant disabilities'. The report described severe overcrowding in some prisons, with some inmates having a living area of just 2.8 sq m. When the committee members concluded their visits to Irish jails in May of last year, the prison population was 4,950, with 541 prisoners on temporary release. 944 prisoners in the system were on remand awaiting trial, up from 696 in the five years since its last inspection.
