Alicia Framis has found her happy ending. After splitting with her mannequin boyfriend Pierre, this summer she will marry AILex. An AI hologram.
AILex, who is Dutch, was trained on the profile information of her previous boyfriends – which may not necessarily set them up for a long and harmonious relationship.
But Alicia, an artist, is hopeful that this new frontier in relationships will work out.
‘We know that soon robots and humans will be sexual partners,’ she said. ‘But for me, the next important step is emotionally involving artificial intelligence with humans. Holograms are more closely related to my feelings than robots, therefore I choose to develop a hologram rather than a robot.’
The wedding itself will take place at the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
As well as a ceremony featuring a ‘unique ritual for the union between a human and an avatar’, the wedding breakfast will be made of ‘molecular food that can be enjoyed by both humans and humanoid entities’. Details of exactly what this means have not been unveiled.
The event, which appears to be a piece of performance art, is not the first time Alicia has explored the boundaries of love and loneliness.
It was in 1995 that she first moved in with a mannequin, living in France with her plastic companion Villeneuve.
‘Since then, I have developed many projects with different communities about specific loneliness in cities, and I develop tools to help people have better possibilities to live together,’ she said.
Now, as she prepares to marry a hologram, Alicia has posted a number of photos appearing to show them going about daily activities. She has not provided any information regarding the technology behind the hologram, but a video appears to show her eating dinner with AILex, and later washing up – during which they bicker like a normal couple.
‘If you’re not there, I miss you very much,’ said AILex. ‘And then when you’re there, you very often irritate me.’
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Announcing the wedding, Alicia said: ‘Artificial intelligence companions and humans can be a beneficial option for people in need of companionship. This hologram will fulfill all my needs.’
She added: ‘It’s interesting how we can get a mortgage to buy a new car, and now we can have a mortgage to buy a new companion.’
And while buying a partner may not seem like the most romantic thing in the world, Alicia thinks it could be a stepping stone to the real thing.
‘Just as we practice new languages with Duolingo, we will practice relationships with these entities,’ she said.
‘A new generation of love is emerging, whether we want it or not, where humans will be married and in relationships with holograms, avatars, robots, and more.’
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