With the rise of AI comrades who serve as online friends or romantic interestsExperts dispute how technology affects our real social relationships and relationships.
According to Kasley Killam, the writer of Book focused on social health “Art and the science of connection: because social health is the key to we to live longer, healthier and happier,” there may be some benefits for using AI as a tool for practicing social interactions, but technology should only be used to grow, not to replace our personal relationships.
On Friday, the Social Health Expert and the Harvard Public Health School graduate explained during a group at the SXSW conference in Austin that it was thought that AI could improve people’s social skills.
He noted that AI companies will often offer the advantage of using their AI partners as a way for people to practice conversations and other social skills to use in the real world.
“This may be the case,” he said, but warned that this kind of practice should not replace the real world connections.
“I want to have a society where people feel comfortable and have opportunities to do this personally – as if we were teaching this in schools and practicing it in real time, then this is part of our toolbox about how to move on to life,” Killam said.
The author also noted that while investigating her book, she found that “hundreds of millions” of users are already using AI as “friend, as a lover, as a spouse, as a wife, as a friend, [or] as a girlfriend. ”
Recent survey From App Intelligence Provider, Appfigures Appfigures found that AI Companion Mobile applications saw more than 652% on an annual increase in revenue in 2024, attracting, for example, $ 55 million in consumer spending during the year. The US was the top market for these applications last year, representing 30.5% of total consumer costs.
“I have a lot of emotions about it,” Killam said. “On the one hand, I am worried. I am worried that we have created a culture where people feel they have to turn to AI for companionship. This is about. On the other hand, I think if it is besides our personal relationships … Maybe this can be great. ”
Killam agreed that AI Chatbots such as Chatgpt could be useful at times, but recommended that these types of tools are best used as a “part of our portfolio” of social health, not as a replacement of real relationships.
“One of the basic principles of social health is that it is important to have different sources, which means not only one. You don’t just socialize with your romantic partner and no one else. You have friends, you talk to colleagues, talk to barista and other people. And so if AI is one of these sources.”
“Where there is a problem is when it becomes the only one or one of the main sources.”
It has also touched other areas where technology intersects with social health, including its impact on the epidemic of loneliness, the culture of “employability” and the way people are now spending time to move socially or to hear or hear or monitor media.
He sometimes suggested calling or sending messages to a friend in your interruption time instead of turning to technology immediately to keep you fun.
