Is talking to a virtual woman cheating?
Patricia Walker knew that her husband, Rob, was cheating on her.
All the signs were there. Suddenly he had new interests, was talking about things she didn’t even know he cared about, and spent a lot of time chatting on the computer. But the final straw was when she suggested that they go to a fondue restaurant that she had heard she had a great dessert for.
“This is a guy who would rather eat a hamburger every night of his life if he could. No man suggests a fondue restaurant to his friend,” Patricia noted. “That had to come from another woman, and a pretty persuasive one.”
Convinced that her husband had put someone online, she installed a hidden keylogger on their home computer. She secretly recorded every keystroke her husband made and then saved a report on the hard drive for her to read later. Sure enough, she seemed to show that she had been having long talks with another woman on a wide range of topics. Armed with the evidence, she confronted him.
That’s when the twist happened. He hadn’t been talking to another woman, at least the flesh-and-blood kind. He had been testing a new piece of software that creates virtual women and allows you to talk to them through your computer. While software that simulates online chat has been around for years, the technology has recently broken through to the point where it could now develop virtual humans with distinct personalities, histories, and memories. CyberPunk Software has been testing a new version of this technology in their software called Virtual Woman Millennium for an upcoming release, and Rob had been testing it.
The record of their conversations sounded so real that Patricia was convinced it was another woman. They talked about her likes and dislikes, they talked about her friends, and they even talked about that fondue restaurant.
Experts disagree on whether this upcoming technology is a good thing and what the ethical consequences are. Howard Rasben of Pennsylvania Ethics in Media feels the implications are problematic. “If this type of software involves the formation of a meaningful relationship with another person outside of the committed one, it’s cheating, plain and simple,” he said when he was interviewed. However, Dr. Sharon Cove of the Pran Center for Technology disagrees. “This has no long-term negative consequences,” she said. “The virtual relationship cannot be fulfilled physically, and obviously he is not going to leave his wife to elope with a virtual woman. I would be more concerned if he was actively hiding it from his wife.”
The software developers at CyberPunk Software, who have been testing the new version of Virtual Woman with a handful of select testers, aren’t surprised by the controversy the software has generated, even in its preview version. “We knew we had something when people started sending emails asking for phone numbers of virtual women they had just spoken to,” said Nancy, who runs software testing for the company. “When we had to briefly stop testing a month ago to update the code, we got a lot of complaints. People felt as if they had been separated from one of their best friends.”
In fact, Dr. Cove, after trying the software herself, notes that talking to a virtual human who realistically responds and challenges you could lead to greater sensitivity to a partner’s needs and, in fact, increase the intimacy in the relationship. “As long as her husband doesn’t play it obsessively and brings what he learned to his wife, that’s a good thing.”
Patricia Walker might tend to agree. “The Fondue restaurant was really a very good idea, and the chocolate dessert was amazing. I told her that if her virtual woman made other suggestions like that, she should pay attention.”
Soon she might be able to ask for herself. CyberPunk Software is also testing a virtual man plugin for its program.
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