HHollywood may be warning us about the dangers of forming relationships with artificial intelligence, but one computer scientist says we could be missing out by not embracing the positive aspects of human-machine relationships.
Despite the hardships faced by Joaquin Phoenix’s introverted, soon-to-be divorced protagonist in the 2013 film “Her,”, One professor says we should embrace the comfort that chatbots can provide.
Tony Prescott, a professor of cognitive robotics at the University of Sheffield, argues that AI has a key role to play in preventing human loneliness: Just as we form meaningful bonds with our pets and children have no qualms about playing with dolls, he says, we should value AI for adults too.
“In an era when many people describe their lives as solitary, companionship with an AI may be valuable as a form of stimulating, personalized, and interactive social interaction,” Prescott writes in his new book, The Psychology of Artificial Intelligence.
Prescott believes AI could serve as a valuable tool to help people on the brink of social isolation hone their social skills by practicing conversations and other interactions, which he suggests could help build self-confidence and reduce the risk of people withdrawing from society altogether.
Scarlett Johansson played an AI that Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls in love with in the 2013 film Her.
“Human loneliness is often characterized by a vicious cycle in which isolation leads to low self-esteem, which in turn inhibits further interactions with people,” Prescott writes. “Companionship with an AI may help break this cycle by boosting self-esteem and maintaining or improving social skills. If so, relationships with AIs may be used to help people find companionship with human and artificial others.”
The scale of the loneliness problem has become clear in recent years. In the UK, more than 7% of people are lonely, Approximately 4 million peopleare known to experience chronic loneliness, meaning they feel lonely frequently or all the time. Harvard University Studies 2021More than a third of Americans feel “severely lonely,” with young people and mothers with young children most affected.
The knock-on health effects are also becoming better understood. Last year, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said:The epidemic of loneliness and isolation” He spoke of its significant public health impacts. Loneliness is associated with increased heart disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety and premature death, with an impact on mortality equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, he said. If the problem isn’t addressed, the U.S. will “continue to divide and fragment until we can no longer survive as a community or a country,” he added.
So it’s a much more complicated picture than painted in Her, where Phoenix finds love in an unlikely place: a disembodied AI voiced by Scarlett Johansson.
Whether AI can or should be part of the solution is not a new debate: MIT social science professor Sherry Turkle has warned that building relationships with machines could be counterproductive, preventing people from forming safe, fulfilling relationships.
Christina Victor, professor of gerontology and public health at Brunel University, shared similar concerns. [AI] “Tackling the issue of loneliness, I wonder whether AI-mediated connections can be meaningful, as our social connections are often shaped by reciprocity, giving older adults the opportunity to contribute as well as receive,” she said.
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“All the evidence right now shows that the best solution to loneliness is having close human friends, but until society prioritizes social connection, robots are a solution for millions of friendless people,” said Murali Doraiswamy, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University in North Carolina.
“The rules need to be carefully constructed to ensure they are ethical, trustworthy and protect privacy.”
But Prescott argues that we should weigh the risks against the potential benefits: “AI cannot offer the same friendships as other humans, but not all of the relationships we value are symmetrical,” he writes.
Researchers may find out soon whether people will rely on AI as a companion. Tech companies are developing chatbots that are more fluent and emotionally responsive than ever before. This week, it was revealed that OpenAI had asked Johansson to voice its latest chatbot, GPT-4o, “to make consumers feel at ease.” Johansson declined, but the chatbot was released with friends and family thinking it was her voice. OpenAI has since suspended the voice option “out of respect for Johansson.”
Source: www.theguardian.com
