In the Star Wars universe, droids do the dirty work: Everything from ship repairs to cooking, to garbage disposal, and in our galaxy, we often deploy robots to do dangerous work like sweeping for mines and the less than glamorous work of hazardous waste clean-up.
But now people are using machines to do the ultimate dirty job: Breaking up with somebody.
The U.K.’s Metro news site reports a growing number of recently single people used ChatGPT to craft their “Dear John” or “Jane” texts.
“It was after the third date and I decided I really didn’t want to be with her,’ says James, one such AI-assisted bachelor. “I just thought I’d rather word it nicely so that she didn’t hate me, so I got ChatGPT to break up with her instead.”
He says all that machine-learning crafted a “beautiful” message to his now-former girlfriend. “I can’t remember the exact words, but it was basically an expanded ‘it’s not you, it’s me,’ talking about how I’m not ready to commit, that I’m not mentally in the right place, and I don’t want to waste your time whilst I figure things out,” he says.
It worked better than James expected. “‘She was like ‘that’s really nice of you to say,” he insists, explaining this wasn’t the last time he’s used it for that purpose.
That said, he allows, “What’s funny is, I never know, maybe their response is a ChatGPT too; like AI having a relationship with AI.”
There’s even a subreddit devoted to using A.I. to do the dirty work.
Hey, it beats ghosting.