Maybe Chatbots Shouldn’t Get to Say ‘I’ or ‘Me’
MIT professor Sherry Turkle warns that people have become dangerously enmeshed with chatbots.
Sherry Turkle's new book, Artificial Intimacy, sounds the alarm about the dangers of overreliance on soulless machines that mimic human roles like tutors, mentors, friends, colleagues, and even lovers. The MIT professor argues that our humanity is at risk and that this is a crisis comparable to Silent Spring, The Jungle, or Unsafe at Any Speed.
Turkle's shift in tone from her previous research to this book's urgent, alarmist style was driven by her conversations during the pandemic. She was shocked to hear people express a strong desire to spend time with their chatbots despite the pandemic's hardships. Turkle believes that social media has conditioned us to seek solace in digital interactions, making us more vulnerable to the allure of chatbots.
She warns that the "human in the loop" concept is a smokescreen for delegating AI tasks to a few humans, ultimately stripping away human involvement. Turkle advocates for banning chatbots from using the first person, as it could lead to dangerous complacency about human interaction. While acknowledging that AI may not replace human conversation entirely, she warns that children raised with chatbots might lose essential emotional connections.
Despite pushback, millions continue using AI, and Turkle remains hopeful that the discussion around the intimate costs of AI will gain traction.
Written by urgent.news from Wired Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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