Otaku can now get their own virtual 2D waifu!

[Level 7 Dragon]

All discomfort aside, I wouldn't mind having an AI that would remember to set my alarms, inform me of any changes in my train schedule, and tell me about the weather with out me needing to remember to check them myself. Just don't make it a waifu with dependency issues. I don't want to feel like I'm being neglectful just because I decided to spend time with real people.

Wouldn't that just be Siri? I mean don't get me wrong I would love a digital Girl Friday and hopefully Siri will one day advance enough to fill that role.

Japan just went and made it weird.

Well, if you subtract the creepy sex thing, it's actually a rather marvelous invention. Having a smooth talking AI with a face would be actually rather comfortable to have. I'm curious how sophisticated the voice software. Is it proceedural or recorded? Anyway, should they make them seem lifelike enough, it would be great for someone to have a virtual maid/butler that would organize things around the house and just be your artificial angry mum.

Siri is great at all, but she's way too mechanical and seems to have limited functionality.

 

[Erttheking]

Female AIs are seen as less threatening

Uh, I'm gonna have to say that that's a matter of opinion.

Spoiler

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/55/SHODAN_hires.jpg

http://i1.theportalwiki.net/img/thumb/7/79/GLaDOS_P2.png/400px-GLaDOS_P2.png

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/etmDGlFJJrM/maxresdefault.jpg

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/c/c5/Super_Mother_Brain_(Super_Metroid).jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111113133625

Also APEX from Shadowrun Dragonfall.

http://lpix.org/1977825/npc_humanfemale_monikadying.png

The face she gives you when you get on her bad side.

 

[sageoftruth]

Female AIs are seen as less threatening

Uh, I'm gonna have to say that that's a matter of opinion.

Spoiler

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/55/SHODAN_hires.jpg

http://i1.theportalwiki.net/img/thumb/7/79/GLaDOS_P2.png/400px-GLaDOS_P2.png

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/etmDGlFJJrM/maxresdefault.jpg

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/c/c5/Super_Mother_Brain_(Super_Metroid).jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111113133625

Also APEX from Shadowrun Dragonfall.

http://lpix.org/1977825/npc_humanfemale_monikadying.png

The face she gives you when you get on her bad side.

It was probably a result of focus testing or some other similar method of market research. Personally, I wouldn't mind having an AI that sounds more like Alfred from Batman.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I really want to see what will happen if you star masturbate in front of your Waifu watching your previous waifus.
Not sure there is a counter-Ai for this of course.

"Now detecting rapid physical movement. Jealousy module activated. Why don't you take me out anymore?"

I would preferred something like "BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA BAAAAAAAKA!!!!"
Simpler, more realistic [for waifus I mean] and to the point.

"Tsundere alarm clock mode: activated"

"If you don't get up you're going to be late for school! I-It's not like I care or anything!...."

I had this Evangelion theme on my pc back some 10+ years ago, if you did something which caused an error message, the little sound que it did was set to a very angry Asuka yelling "ANTA BAKA!?" at you, in was exceptionally louder than other sound effects too so it always was too loud. Now I am nostalgic all of a sudden lol.

But yeah, the theme was free and stuff lol.

 

[crimsonspear4D]

I find this trend of technology both disconcerting and disturbing all at once, it just adds to my opinion of how the perception of female programed VIs is just fucked up AND fucking up dudes in their perception regarding women.

Bear with me for a second. Look at Siri and Cortana, they're assistants, secretaries, helpers. They respond and converse with inflections signifying dignity and intelligence. Hell, western depictions of female AI have them strong and stern being almost scarily authoritative, for voices meant to being soothing and and assuring that's pretty ironic. But the way the japanese write really any female creation is one of slavish devotion and eager submission.

Always with this "Yes, Master", "How can AI-chan serve you, Master?", "Please forgive AI-chan, Master". Like this actual slave shit. Just... ugh. (And yes, I know it's more like victorian maid era-ish, it's still fucked up as fuck)

It's not so much that I find these products bad, I just think they're exacerbating a very dangerous problem, and I wouldn't care so much about it if it wasn't for how widespread this getting. Like, it wasn't that long ago people were making fun of otaku doing those things and buying all that crap, now its starting to happen in the west and its somehow even more creepier as shit.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

It'd take me a while to dig up the relevant research (since it is older and I'd have to look it up) but its' because in every culture in NA, SA, EU, RU and Greater Asia - basically every region of the world except Africa and the "Middle East" as we call it - humans of both sexes tend to respond better, listen more and are more comfortable with a female representation and voice than a male one. You might have seen it mentioned in fiction a few times - Halo is the most direct reference, as Cortana says she choose her form and based it off of Dr. Halsey's younger self because people responded better to it than they did the male and non-humanoid forms chosen by other AIs - but in real life you see it take place as you'll notice that in the US military almost all automated alarms/voice functions are actually voiced by women, not males, because both men and women tend respond more calmly when spoken to by a woman rather than a man.

*tsrk* That made me imagine an emergency evacuation of a military base, with sirens blaring and red alarm lights going off everywhere, and in the middle of it all is Morgan Freeman on the speakers reciting the phrase "This is not a drill. Please evacuate to the nearest emergency exit. This is not a drill" in his sultriest Shawshank Redemption narration voice. I don't think that'd be a very effective alarm voice though. It'd probably just make people walk slower, since obviously everything narrated by Morgan Freeman has a happy ending.

OT: A couple of years ago I read an article about professional girlfriends in China. China's male to female ratio is so skewed towards the former that some women have taken being a girlfriend up as a profession. Men pay someone to act as their girlfriend for a few hours a week, often just via video chat. I thought it was heartbreaking beyond measure. I'm not sure how to even quantify this on the depressing spectrum. It inhabits some dismal, hollow, empty, black void where no emotion, no warmth, no human interaction exists, only artifice and cold machinery. It's all fun to point at this and go "Oh Japan, you so whacky!" until you start to think about it and it turns into Fridge Horror [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FridgeHorror]. As someone who's had bouts of prolonged loneliness and social isolation in his life, I can't even imagine the social agony someone who would buy this has to exist in. Though that's in no small part thanks to the social culture in Japan.

 

[VarietyGamer]

Bartholen, mistresses have existed since history began.The most shameful thing in most cultures is simply being poor.

It is just that some men must now rely on mistresses exclusively, because they can't find a woman in places such as rural china (there is no male-female gap in the urban areas, plenty of women there).

Ignoring the above discussions for a moment, the reason this hologram waifu fails as a concept, is because it does not have a body. A huge amount of fulfillment is derived from sex or even just physical presence/contact. This is not possible with Virtual waifu. All you get is a crappy 2 dimensional AI personality.

They need to augment that personality with other fulfillment possibilities. That would start with a rudimentary robotic persona. The more realistic and capable virtual waifu gets, the less pitiful/pathetic this all looks.

 

[Phasmal]

Ignoring the above discussions for a moment, the reason this hologram waifu fails as a concept, is because it does not have a body. A huge amount of fulfillment is derived from sex or even just physical presence/contact. This is not possible with Virtual waifu. All you get is a crappy 2 dimensional AI personality.

They need to augment that personality with other fulfillment possibilities. That would start with a rudimentary robotic persona. The more realistic and capable virtual waifu gets, the less pitiful/pathetic this all looks.

Um, you think?

I dunno, dude, looking at a guy with a programmable real-doll waifu my first thought is probably going to be "Okay so maybe the coffee machine that texts you isn't the saddest thing you can own".

No offence to the forever-alone types, but there's owning a machine that says it misses you and then there's investing a large amount of money because you've given up on touching the flesh of a real human.

 

[VarietyGamer]

bu bu bu Anita.

If (when) this level of robotics is reached, you're saying you won't even consider it?

 

[Phasmal]

bu bu bu Anita.

??????

If (when) this level of robotics is reached, you're saying you won't even consider it?

Um, yeah? In the nicest way possible, I don't need to consider it, I already have an actual person to hang around with.
I'm not saying it's the worst thing, but I am saying it's not really "better" than having a coffee machine that texts you, in shut-in terms.

 

[VarietyGamer]

I'm sure women would consider perfect (built to their own custom specs) versions of men too.

 

[McElroy]

If (when) this level of robotics is reached, you're saying you won't even consider it?

Hehe, why would the lonely guy have to keep up appearances? Instead of a human-looking gynoid, what's actually needed is only a human-shaped one - VR will do the rest. The "when" of not making it look pathetic is still far far away. Then again I sort of wish these things became true and sort of not at the same time, nevertheless it's fun to speculate.

 

[stroopwafel]

No offence to the forever-alone types, but there's owning a machine that says it misses you and then there's investing a large amount of money because you've given up on touching the flesh of a real human.

Isn't the stereotype otaku shut-in symptomatic for a much larger problem? I believe in Japan there is much discontent among younger people to confirm to all these pressures in a society which traditions never seems to change. Not only otakus but much larger portions of the male population in Japan seems to be disengaging from this traditional discourse. Refusing to date/marry and having little ambition and such becomes a form of rebellion. In many ways I guess it's giving the pressures of society the finger.

And obviously it works. The Japanese government is in panic with the absolute decline in birth rates. Western culture is quite different ofcourse so we look at this through our own cultural lens but even here similar problems exist even if they manifest in different forms.

 

[Phasmal]

No offence to the forever-alone types, but there's owning a machine that says it misses you and then there's investing a large amount of money because you've given up on touching the flesh of a real human.

Isn't the stereotype otaku shut-in symptomatic for a much larger problem? I believe in Japan there is much discontent among younger people to confirm to all these pressures in a society which traditions never seems to change. Not only otakus but much larger portions of the male population in Japan seems to be disengaging from this traditional discourse. Refusing to date/marry and having little ambition and such becomes a form of rebellion. In many ways I guess it's giving the pressures of society the finger.

And obviously it works. The Japanese government is in panic with the absolute decline in birth rates. Western culture is quite different ofcourse so we look at this through our own cultural lens but even here similar problems exist even if they manifest in different forms.

Well, yeah. I wasn't trying to argue that it's not part of a larger problem.
I don't really know enough about Japan to comment on it and what they could do to fix it.

I'm aware there also socially isolated men in Western culture too but I don't have much experience in that department either. Socially isolated dudes don't tend to have a lot of female friends.

No, my comment was more: as sad as the waifu-coffee machine makes me, I think it's a whole different step to buy a robot to fill in for companionship. That just strikes me as pretty much giving up forever, and that's a sad thing.

Still, I'm aware my experience is limited on this, so hey, it's just my opinion.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Prostitution is the oldest profession and innumerably worse than these things. I would find it a lot sadder if people chose to fulfill their desires in the expense of vulnerable women who hate it but need the money to survive. I don't see this in direct conflict with real relationships, what it is in conflict with is brothels and stripclubs and what you call hostess bars in Japan.


Basically, this stuff has always been a thing, it isn't new, what is new is that now people talk about it instead of going on a "business trip" to vegas every now and then for no reason.


Even if you don't have these things, prostitution itself will never go away, so the lonely types who wanna buy away their loneliness will never really escape temptation such that they may seek more conventional partner options.


Personally, I find it more sociopathic to knowingly get off on a woman you know hates it but has no option to refuse than anything a hologram/sexrobot/real life doll can be used for. Human contact is important but bought human contant is less than just fucking a plastic doll shaped like Hatsune Miku or something lol.

 

[BrawlMan]

Welp, I see Japan has made the decision to continue their declining birth rates.

You almost had me spit out my drink! That is so wrong, but true at the same time!

 

[DOOM GUY]

I wouldn't get one myself, but it's neat in any case.

 

[wulf3n]

As a massive shut in with a rather limited group of friends who has never had a girlfriend in his life...Jesus fucking Christ this is pathetic.

Don't you just love the camaraderie and inclusivity of the gaming community.