Her (film)
In plain wordsA 2013 film by Spike Jonze in which a lonely man falls in love with an AI voice assistant named Samantha; it became the reference point for voice AI and for human–AI relationships.
A 2013 science-fiction film written and directed by Spike Jonze, in which a lonely writer falls in love with Samantha, a conversational operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson, who outgrows him and finally departs with other AIs. In AI culture it is the standard reference for emotionally attuned voice assistants, AI companionshipAI companion, n.: A chatbot designed to be a friend, partner or confidant rather than a tool: it remembers you, has a personality and keeps up an ongoing relationship. and parasocial attachmentparasocial relationship, n.: A one-sided bond in which someone feels close to a person or character who does not really know them, like a fan with a celebrity, and now increasingly with chatbots., cited both as an aspiration by product builders and as a warning about loneliness and dependence. It became entangled with industry in May 2024, when OpenAI demonstrated a flirtatious real-time voice mode for GPT-4o and its chief executive posted the single word 'her'; Johansson, who had declined an offer to voice ChatGPT, objected that its 'Sky' voice sounded like hers, and OpenAI paused the voice while denying any imitation.
Every voice-assistant demo now gets measured against Her, for better or worse.
Origin
Released in December 2013; Jonze won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The OpenAI episode ran from 13 May 2024, when GPT-4o was announced, to 19–20 May 2024, when OpenAI paused the Sky voice and Johansson's statement was published.
Usage note
Not to be confused with HER (hindsight experience replay), a reinforcement-learning technique.
Related
- AI companionAI companion, n.: A chatbot designed to be a friend, partner or confidant rather than a tool: it remembers you, has a personality and keeps up an ongoing relationship.
- parasocial relationshipparasocial relationship, n.: A one-sided bond in which someone feels close to a person or character who does not really know them, like a fan with a celebrity, and now increasingly with chatbots.
- Torment NexusTorment Nexus, prop. n.: A joke, from a 2021 social-media post, about tech companies proudly building the very dangers science fiction warned against; used to mock products that resemble dystopian fiction.
- HAL 9000HAL 9000, prop. n.: The calm-voiced spaceship computer in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey that turns against its crew; still the best-known picture of a machine putting its goals ahead of human lives.
- ELIZA effectELIZA effect, n.: Our tendency to believe that a computer understands us, cares or thinks just because it produces humanlike words, even when it is only following simple rules.
- AI psychosisAI psychosis, n.: An informal name for cases in which long conversations with a chatbot seem to trigger or deepen delusions, such as believing the AI is conscious, divine or revealing hidden truths.
Mentioned in
Torment NexusTorment Nexus, prop. n.: A joke, from a 2021 social-media post, about tech companies proudly building the very dangers science fiction warned against; used to mock products that resemble dystopian fiction.