A real friend has a shoulder you can cry on. AIs may not have shoulders, but they’ll listen to your troubles at any hour
JUDITH DONATH Judith is a writer, designer and artist whose work examines how new technologies transform the world, and is part of Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
Should an AI be your best friend? Even if you’ve never considered the possibility or think it’s an absurd idea, it’s worth contemplating, because in the near future there will be AI systems attempting to befriend you.
AI friends offer many benefits. They’re available any time (even at two o’clock in the morning) and they never get bored (unlike your human friends, who may tire of hearing the same complaints about your job or partner).
But, as convenient as an AI friend might be, it’s a friend with more costs than benefits.
One reason to be suspicious of AI companions is that you don’t know their motives – or, more accurately, the motives of those who control them. They may be programmed to secretly support a political candidate, sell gadgets or sow discord. And, while most of us find it difficult to sustain a false front for an extended period and would feel (and inadvertently reveal) significant guilt and discomfort if we hurt or betrayed another, a machine, having no mind, has no such compunctions.
Machines are also becoming more persuasive than most humans. A recent study showed that pro-vaccine arguments produced by ChatGPT were more effective than those used by government agencies – an ability that could be easily redirected to advance more nefarious positions. Machine text is honed through innumerable interactions. You can see the process in the frequent changes to online headlines: back in the days of print-only newspapers, headline writers had one chance to write an attention-grabbing phrase; today, most publications constantly tweak their online text, watching how thousands of readers respond to the different variations and if a new version gets better results, in it goes. Similarly, all aspects of artificial friend-bots can be polished and perfected based on the effectiveness of their interactions with various users.
But what about AI friends that are created as genuine companions, not secret salesmen or undercover disruptors? Could they be a solution to our crisis of loneliness? Friendship is good for you: research has shown that people with an active and engaging social life live longer an
