Artificial intelligence has the potential to do great things for humanity, but there’s a human cost to every technology. MIT psychologist and best-selling author Dr. Sherry Turkle has been studying the effects of our interactions with machines for over four decades. In her latest book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines, she declares a state of emergency over our growing dependence on chatbots for friendship, love, and therapy. She sums up the book this way: if social media came for our attention, then AI is coming for our capacity for attachment. In short, as we dive into “relationships” with AI, we forget how to be human.
I sat down with Dr. Turkle for a wide-ranging conversation about her new book. We covered all the things about human relationships that we stand to lose if we depend on AI interactions. We talked about why she’s especially concerned for children who use chatbots, and how chatbots threaten young people’s social and thinking skills. We also look at what parents can do to protect their kids from the pitfalls of chatbot use. And we end on a hopeful note, looking at how we can practice living life in the real and how the power of AI can be harnessed to help us live life in the real, without sacrificing our intimacy with other human beings.
I’ve got more in store to share with you about this important topic, including an article in the New York Post explaining how parents are the first line of defense against the harms of chatbot use in schools and at home. And I have a review of Artificial Intimacy that will be coming out soon in the Los Angeles Review of Books.
For now, enjoy the interview and consider sharing it with someone you think would benefit from it!
Cross-posted from The Human Adventure.