Nineties kids (and their parents) may remember the Tamagotchi craze, a tiny egg-shaped video game that dominated toy markets for a time. Kids would raise a virtual pet that could hang from their backpack like a key chain. I’ve been told it was a great toy – the trauma of forgetting it somewhere and then finding it had passed on to greener digital pastures notwithstanding.
Now, in the age of the Metaverse, something else is here … and it is even creepier. “Augmented-reality babies” offer users the virtual experience of “parenting” an algorithm designed to behave like a real baby. Using virtual-reality goggles, or even potentially wearable gloves that can simulate physical touch, users can interact with a digital baby as it grows … or, optionally (and even more creepily), as it stays exactly the same.
Some gurus are heralding AR babies as a new age of parenting. “Make no mistake that this development, should it indeed take place, is a technological game-changer which … could help us solve some of today’s most pressing issues, including overpopulation,” says Catriona Campbell, a former technology adviser to the British government and author of the book “AI by Design: A Plan for Living With Artificial Intelligence.”
Some argue this new development could also ease loneliness for those who want children but are unable to have them or for those who feel they can’t afford to have children. While the average kid costs about $230,000 by the time they reach age 17, reports the New York Post, “a digital kid … could have all its needs met for less than $25 per month.” And as a bonus, no changing diapers!
In light of these possibilities, Campbell offered a somewhat unsettling prediction: “I think it would be reasonable to expect as many as 20% of people choosing to have an AR baby over a real one.”