AI chatbots: are they friends or foes?
Sociologist Sherry Turkle has been exploring the increasingly interconnected relationship between human beings and technology for 50 years, since the 1970’s. She wrote recently: “First people talked to one another; then we talked to one another through machines; now we talk directly to machines.” She’s referring to the growing reliance on chatbots, that use artificial intelligence to simulate conversation, for friendship, counseling and love.
This week, a conversation with Sherry Turkle about her new book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines. She’s been sounding the alarm about the dangers of chatbot relationships that offer simulated empathy and can deepen social isolation. She is professor of the social studies of science and technology at MIT and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and the Self.
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