Why you should not substitute humans with plastic

AI is everywhere in our lives. From doomscrolling TikTok to when vibe coding a new idea, people are constantly in contact with AI. But some argue that AI also could be a companion to combat loneliness. According to the US surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, if loneliness is not fixed it will “splinter and divide until we can no longer stand as a community or a country.” However, what the companies working on AI companions often forget to tell you is that reducing loneliness with AI does not always lead to less divisionor better mental health. Despite being “real and meaningful relationships”, AI can end up leading to more harm when accounting for the polarization and isolation it might cause. Yet some are still convinced that AI will solve our loneliness epidemic. But the real cause of loneliness is not lacking connection with an AI but with humans. Therefore, we should prevent the use of AI as a substitute for human relationships, because it causes more harm than good even when accounting for the reduction in loneliness it might cause.

We live in a loneliness epidemic according to a tech reporter from the New York Times. In the UK nearly four million people experience chronic loneliness. That is a lot of people. It has been shown that loneliness has an impact on mortality equal to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, without the enjoyment of smoking. So, no wonder AI companies seek to solve this problem with their AI relationships. But the problem with this approach is that AI might cause less loneliness in the short term but will end up leading to more isolation in the long term. Just like Sherry Turkle, a professor of social sciences at MIT, warned us: AI can lead us to have fewer meaningful human connections. So by trying to solve loneliness you can end up just creating more. While if you joined a club or began going to therapy, so you could challenge the cause of your loneliness, it is almost guaranteed to not worsen your loneliness.

But despite some professors’ concerns around AI, some computer scientists still think it could be the solution. According to a professor of cognitive robotics, an academic field not known to the Cambridge Dictionary, AI could be a form of personalized and stimulating reciprocal social interaction. But that is not all, AI has also been shown to improve your self-confidence. A new AI startup created by Avi Schiffmann thinks AI could reduce loneliness. The startup built a pendant you can hang around your neck, meanwhile it can listen to everything you say. He also has plans to add a camera in the future. As you can hear, it is avery privacy-focused device. Schiffmann thinks at the same time you will end up treating the AI just like a fellow human. This is why you should take a moment to ask yourself if you would agree ten years ago to treat a piece of plastic as a human just like Schiffmann says you would do.

Despite the benefits we discussed around AI, AI still should not be used to combat loneliness. Not because your grandma might be worried when your best friend is a piece of plastic, but because AI also can, and is made to, confirm your beliefs. It could also be used as a bad substitute for therapy just so you can keep being engaged.9 Like when you scroll on social media, your attention is money. Even if they didn’t try to substitute therapy - or girlfriends - but truly only wanted to help the professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University, Murali Doraiswamy, says that “Right now, all the evidence points to having a close human friend as the best solution for loneliness.” But one thing both sides agree on is that loneliness isbad and our society isn’t equipped to handle it. So let’s combat the cause of the problem instead of the symptoms.

In conclusion we have discussed whether AI can be used as a solution to the loneliness epidemic and concluded that it cannot. Even though many computer scientists think AI could be the solution to loneliness, professors specializing in mental health think otherwise. Both sides agree that our society is not built around social connectedness. Which is why we should go at the root of the problem instead of all the symptoms. Let’s stop loneliness together instead of separated. It isn’t always about you, sometimes it’s about us.