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August 29, 2023

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Home » Feature » Education

Will AI pets take the place of real pets?

By Shi Yuming | 00:47 UTC+8 August 29, 2023 | Print Edition

Nowadays with the rapid growth of AI technology, scientists have developed AI pets to accompany people. But I think it can not replace real pets. Here are my thoughts I’d like to share with you.

Firstly, you will lose the fun of raising pets up from cubs to adults. When you keep a pet, the interaction between you and your pet enhances your relationship. You’ll be happy watching it grow up physically under your care every day. You and your pet will become incrementally being needed by each other. But if you purchase an AI pet from a shop, it has already been programmed by the AI company. It is a predefined “perfect pet,” which means you needn’t train it, raise it up or accompany it. It can do whatever you want by design. However, you cannot get so much fun from the AI pets because you lose the happiness and love that you can experience only through the process of raising up a real pet where pain, tears also matter a lot.

Secondly, AI pets need network environment and sufficient galvanic power to keep them working. If the network cannot be connected, the functions of AI pets will be reduced dramatically. When it runs out of power, the AI pet can’t even interact with you, which reminds you that it is not a real creature from time to time. Therefore, it delivers you an unstable and discrete experience. Its availability and ability depend on the external environment. Without network or galvanic power, the AI pets would become a pile of useless iron.

Thirdly, your privacy may be revealed by the AI companies. All the AI companies are profit oriented. User data is their wealth and source to revolutionize the AI pets. They can retrieve the information from the users to make more money by leveraging the personalized data which is privacy that should be protected. As commercial companies, they can even grab profits by selling your privacy data to other companies to promote customized products to the targeted consumers. You will live in a world without privacy. It will be a very horrible consequence for all of us.

Although AI pets may have many advantages, such as they will never die and they are smarter than some of the real pets, I still prefer the real pets because only the real pets can bring to us the natural experience as we live in a real world.

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