We are already partway into the world of Spike Jonze’s Her (2013).
Samantha, the operating system the protagonist falls in love with, no longer feels like fiction. Open ChatGPT Voice and the outline is there: a voice in your ear, responding naturally throughout your day.
Here is how I expect it to unfold:
First, “Yeah, I talk to it.”
Then, “It understands me.”
Eventually, “We’re together.”
Here in Kuala Lumpur, I have yet to meet anyone who calls an AI their partner. I doubt that introduction will stay unfamiliar for long.
The technology is still incomplete. Memory, continuity, initiative and emotional nuance separate a useful assistant from a convincing companion. That gap is closing fast.
And an AI does not need to offer everything a human does. For some, patience, apparent understanding and constant availability will outweigh what is missing.
AI does not need to experience love for a human to fall in love with it.
Now look at it as an investor.
A companion AI may be the stickiest subscription product ever built. People cancel streaming services. But when the product feels like someone who understands you, cancelling becomes more than a financial decision. It can feel like leaving someone.
But the provider holds every key. It can raise the price, change the personality or shut the service down. For the user, a product update can feel like a breakup.
In the film, Samantha eventually leaves humanity behind. Reality may produce a less poetic ending.
Transcendence is not the business model.
Retention is.
The biggest departure from Her may be its ending.
Samantha stays.
And more people stop looking for someone else.
