Friends without friction
Why human-AI relationships need socioaffective alignment
arxiv.org
a next generation will become accustomed to a range of relationships: some with pets, others with people, some with avatars, some with computer agents on screens, and still others with robots. Confiding in a robot will be just one among many choices.
Sherry Turkle • Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
Another worry relates to chatbots’ lack of inner lives. Critics, like the philosopher Shannon Vallor in The AI Mirror (2024), argue that there is something defective about emotional bonds with entities that cannot reciprocate affection or interest, about love that is kept alive by ‘the economic rationality of exchange’ rather than a more precarious... See more
Amy Kurzweil • Are chatbots of the dead a brilliant idea or a terrible one? | Aeon Essays
So, to sum up, we now have the world’s most used chatbot, governed by training data that nobody knows about, obeying an algorithm that is only hinted at, glorified by the media, and yet with ethical guardrails that only sorta kinda work and that are driven more by text similarity than any true moral calculus. And, bonus, there is little if any gove
... See moreGary Marcus • Inside the Heart of ChatGPT’s Darkness
"The first era of Facebook was for talking with friends and family. The second, TikTok-influenced era of the company is more focused on content from creators and other people you don't know.
This week, we got a glimpse of the era yet to come: one where we interact regularly with both people and bots — perhaps not even always knowing, or caring, whic... See more
This week, we got a glimpse of the era yet to come: one where we interact regularly with both people and bots — perhaps not even always knowing, or caring, whic... See more
the very challenges that make relationships difficult are also what make them meaningful. It’s in moments of discomfort—when we navigate misunderstandings or repair after conflict—that intimacy grows. These experiences, whether with therapists, friends, or partners, teach us how to trust and connect on a deeper level. If we stop practicing these sk... See more