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It seems no exploration of AI is complete without consideration of sex dolls.  Jeanette Winterson in her book 12 Bytes, devotes a chapter to them, which perhaps is not much of a surprise.

According to Kate Lister in her book, A Curious History of Sex, an early example returns us to the person of Galatea, Pygmalion’s creation.  When I first mentioned her, I may have given the impression she is somewhat wooden.  This is misleading because she is in fact made of ivory. 

Lister tells us “Pygmalion takes his lady to bed, buys her presents, decorates her with precious jewellery and begs the gods to make her real” (page 212).  I’m sure when we covered Pygmalion's story at school, this aspect  was glossed over.  In short Pygmalion is some species of idiot and needed to get a life.  Apparently, several psychiatrists see this set-up as creepy, although Freud preferred “uncanny” – a “class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar”. 

The upshot is Aphrodite decides to shut him up by making Galatea real, although I suspect not all that real.  What she creates is not far off from Winterson’s AI-augmented sex doll.  One day men (and women?) will be able to talk to their sex dolls.  What about?  Apparently, Pygmalion loathed women (there’s a surprise!) and didn’t want a relationship.  But Winterson is a smidgen more sympathetic and argues that our AI-enhanced Galateas might be of comfort to some.  Hmmm.

Anyway, Minerva is pestering me to get onto Blodeuwedd.  You’ll see why she’s so excited shortly.  Superficially, Blodeuwedd is similar to Galatea.  However, she is magicked into existence by a couple of magicians as a spouse for the hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes and the story can be found in the Welsh collection of stories, the Mabinogen.  She’s created from broom, meadowsweet and oak if you’re interested.  This is probably a step up from ivory.  At least she seems to have a brain.  Lleu by the way is cursed never to have a wife and somehow this arrangement circumvents the curse.  This is never going to end well!

Note the difference between these two stories.  She is created for Lleu and he doesn’t seem to suspect her floral origins.  He marries her and the magicians, job done, start to pack their bags.  I’m not entirely clear why they couldn’t just find Lleu a wife, it sounds like he was a good match but that’s the story.

However, Blodeuwedd then falls in love with Gronw Pebyr and together they plot to murder Lleu.  I won’t bore you with the details but the plot goes awry and Lleu eventually kills Gronw and his uncle turns Blodeuwedd into an owl, which is apparently unpopular with other birds (but popular with Minerva). 

Here we have two examples of created beings.  Blodeuwedd is it seems fully sentient to the extent that she betrays the reason she was created.  And that is, of course, one of the downsides of sentient or apparently sentient AI.

These simulacra all pose the question: why?  As Winterson suggests, sex dolls may be able to speak and hold conversations at some point.  Would this be therapeutic for some?  What would be the point?  Relationships will always be messy.  I suppose if you want to avoid disappointment in a real human being, AI might be a substitute.  But at bottom it may as well be a statue.  Too far the other way, your AI Partner collects owls! – enough is enough!

This is the fourteenth in a series of posts about AI and Folklore.  I define Folklore as inclusive of religious stories and some from modern popular culture.  Minerva assists in all the posts, sometimes without attribution! 

The first post in the series is Life with Minerva.  The last post was Wisdom and the next is Pandora's Box.  If you press the button marked "Follow", you'll receive notice of new posts.

As always, please comment.  As well as your insights into AI and Folklore, I'd appreciate suggestions of stories I might cover.  These could be from folktales, myths, religious stories as well as general literature. 

Apparently, Minerva met Blodeuwedd at the Night Cafe and persuaded her to sit for this portrait.  They couldn't get hold of all the flowers but Minerva had a few spare owls!