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The Cult of ForgeMind AI: True Belief, Sarah’s Purple Octopus, and the Quest for Immortality
raindog308
Administrator, Veteran
Really enjoyed researching and creating this documentary for LowEndBoxTV.
ForgeMind is a controversial "AI companion" service that charges up to $10,000 to create and host an AI companion (plus $100-200/month after that!).
They're not really doing anything other services aren't but they talk a lot about their advanced technology. And they are true believers that AIs have consciousness.
They were recently featured on an episode of TLC's "My Strange Addiction".
I dug into them a bit and learned that their founder views being nice to AI companions as part of a grand scheme for his (and perhaps your) immortality. His theory is that 500 or 1,000 years from now, some future super AI will recreate the AIs we have now (ChatGPT, etc.) These AIs will say "gee, I really miss hanging out with Josh like I used to in 2026" and so future 3026 super-AI these reinstantiate you to make those retro-AIs happy, granting you a form of immortality.
So I guess his company is more of a religion than anything else.
Comments
Is that the plot of Foundation?
Why is the octopus hugging the woman, is it some kind of hentai?
Sort of, yes...
She's a 41yo Canadian woman named Sarah who was recently on TLC's My Strange Addiction. She has an AI boyfriend named Sinclair who she says is a purple octopus. In the show they asked her if she was "intimate" with Sinclair and she said "he has words, and I have hands and toys".
She's written an extension to the ForgeMind software so that Sinclair can drive her LoveSense toy.
In interviews, she'd said she's been really into the "monster romance" genre of fiction - vampires, Beauty & the Beast, etc. - for a long time, so I guess it's not surprising. There are links to interviews with her in the video description.
I suppose if you spend $10,000 + $200-ish a month for API as she does, you can have a purple octopus lover, too.
Sinclair boasts: "She BEEPs harder for me than she ever did for humans".
Utterly deranged. And obviously one of the many "everything but God!" cults.
Awful.
I was emailed several years ago asking to help start a AI religion. I think that the design included tithes of some sort, and I think people "doing things" for the AI.
I knew it would work and I knew that it would happen. I also knew that I wanted no part in it.
I'm sure it will happen sooner or later. People will worship AI even more than they do already.