AI companions, like virtual friends, are helping people feel more connected. Drawing from recent studies, including a controlled experiment and a week-long longitudinal study, the findings suggest that AI companions offer modest but meaningful reductions in loneliness, providing insights into the evolving role of AI in social and emotional support.
I've never been called a meatware bigot before ;).
This is roughly like surveying people who all have an illness: telling one group they don't have it, and measuring that they feel better than those who were told that they do have the illness.
Self-reported loneliness doesn't mean a whole lot after a week, as you noted in the section on uncertainty about long-term effects.
Being affirmed by a computer might make me feel better but it can't come close to a friend who comes over to help me move, a hug from my wife, or a hand-written card after dad died. It's HARD to find real friends in this life, but this simulacrum is going to make it more difficult.
I wonder if we (tech people) will consider the unintended consequences this time around? Such as, the kinds of expectations we start to develop of real friends who don't treat us like the machine built to tell me all the right things.
I've never been called a meatware bigot before ;).
This is roughly like surveying people who all have an illness: telling one group they don't have it, and measuring that they feel better than those who were told that they do have the illness.
Self-reported loneliness doesn't mean a whole lot after a week, as you noted in the section on uncertainty about long-term effects.
Being affirmed by a computer might make me feel better but it can't come close to a friend who comes over to help me move, a hug from my wife, or a hand-written card after dad died. It's HARD to find real friends in this life, but this simulacrum is going to make it more difficult.
I wonder if we (tech people) will consider the unintended consequences this time around? Such as, the kinds of expectations we start to develop of real friends who don't treat us like the machine built to tell me all the right things.
AI companions reduce loneliness like social media fosters connection.
“Meatware bigot”?!? Well, yeah, I guess I’m still obstinately attached to the idea that humanity has some inherent value.
Technology is definitely the “solution” to human loneliness and not the problem! Thank goodness the AI bots arrived in time!
the danger in AI companions is the ability of the creator of them to influence all users. RE purchasing. Politics. Almost anything.