New research from OpenAI shows that heavy chatbot usage is correlated with loneliness and reduced socialization. Will AI companies learn from social networks’ mistakes?
Note that these studies aren’t suggesting that heavy ChatGPT usage directly causes loneliness. Rather, it suggests that lonely people are more likely to seek emotional bonds with bots
The important question here is: do lonely people seek out interaction with AI or does AI create lonely people? The article clearly acknowledges this and then treats the latter like the likely conclusion. It definitely merits greater study.
Or does AI prey on lonely people much like other types of scams do?
It’s not sentient and has no agenda. It’s fair to say suggest that advertise themselves as “AI companions” appeal to / prey on lonely people.
It’s not a scam unless it purports to be a real person.
It’s not sentient and has no agenda.
The Humans who program them are and do.