THE IMPACT ON HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
AI will continue to advance, and it will become more capable of saying the right words to make us feel loved, cherished and understood. It promises a solution to loneliness, especially for those who feel isolated.
Yet, this promise comes with significant risks – the greatest of which is how AI could fundamentally alter our very understanding of friendship.
Former WeWork executive Greg Isenberg recently claimed he knew someone who spends US$10,000 a month on “AI girlfriends”. A recent report in The Verge also showed how some teens have described becoming addicted to their chatbot “friends”.
It is too easy to rely on AI to satisfy one’s emotional needs. Since AI friends are designed to please their users, they will not turn down one’s requests. This can perpetuate an unhealthy cycle of emotional dependency as one grows reliant on them as an emotional crutch. One could lose the ability to fulfil emotional needs by themselves.
AI friends are always available, always understanding, always patient, and always capable of saying the words we wish to hear. Once we include the ability to modify the AI’s personality and behaviour to suit our needs, these AI companions offer the promise of a perfect friend that will never let us down.
The philosopher, Martin Heidegger, warned that technology has a way of framing things as resources waiting to be utilised, making it difficult for us to discover anything else about it. If I use an ore detector and it finds ore at a site, I will perceive the site firstly as a mineral repository. Yet, had I not seen the hill with my own eyes, I would not discover the hill’s natural beauty.
Similarly, both the design and marketing of AI companions present us with a very narrow perspective of friendship – as friendship for some personal gain, be it mental health support, alleviating loneliness, or for amusement. If I am constantly presented with these uses, I may never come to discover the value and beauty of friendship for its own sake.
If we engage with AI friends without reflection, we risk forgetting that relationships are about learning to grow and adapt to each other’s quirks and imperfections. We risk reducing friends into mere instruments for emotional satisfaction. We risk stripping the very concept of friendship bare of its profound meaning and purpose.
