AI Alone?

Am I alone? Where do we find companion(.ai)s? The rapid rise of artificial intelligence as a mainstay in our lives has raised a whole host of ethical, moral, professional, and personal questions. Our attempts to understand how AI will influence our lives can hardly keep pace with the advancement of the technology itself. Even if we set aside the questions about about the environmental and economic impact, we are still left with a number of questions about how we plan to utilize AI in our lives.

One such question concerns the role AI will play in our social and personal lives. As the technology becomes more advanced, utilizing human-like speech, including audio feedback, the potential for it to encroach on our human relationships increase. Concerns about AI being used in mental health environments are beginning to emerge as healthcare companies seek to cut costs and keep pace with increased service demands. These same technologies are now looking to replace study partners in the classroom and friends we confide in in the wee hours of the morning. It’s not long before we are running off to Vegas with our AI companions.

When you consider these invasions of our personal lives in conjunctions with all of the ways AI companies are trying to leverage the technology in our professional lives, you’re left wondering if there will be any room left for personal interactions with other humans. I suppose that’s the point though, eh? Any opportunity to encourage you to use AI is a chance to monetize the interaction.

While we march into this not-yet-understood future, we will continue to erode the social skills necessary to have the human interactions that we know play such an important role in our wellbeing and overall happiness. AI companions aren’t programmed to challenge our beliefs. They aren’t able to provide the paralinguistic cues that human speech delivers to help us understand mood, intent, and emotion.

I suppose this ultimately leaves us with a bit of a conundrum. We are becoming more isolated, more lonely, spending more time at home, not connecting with our local communities, and turning to technology to fill that void. If we want to shift our attention away from these shiny objects, we undoubtedly need to refocus our attention (and our resources) on making the opportunities for those face-to-face engagements easier and more desirable.

Luckily, these aren’t new questions and new problems. They may seem unique and that much more dire, but only without the benefit of history. Previous generations have raised concerns about new and emerging technology before. It wasn’t that long ago that people destroyed printing presses out of fear. Needless to say, the democratization of book access didn’t lead to the downfall of society, and the fears of distractions preventing work didn’t come to pass. Work changed. Leisure changed. AI need not be a catalyst for increased loneliness and solitude, but if we aren’t consider it’s impact and attempt to advance our thinking around social engagement at a similar pace, we certainly run the risk of ceding that control altogether. Let’s hope we can convince ourselves to leave Plato’s cave.