Remember the 2013 movie “Her” where Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls head over heels for an AI assistant, the voice of Scarlet Johansson? Fast forward to today, our interactions with ChatGPT are becoming more personal according to a new study.
Is ChatGPT making you Lonely?
OpenAI and MIT Media Lab recently teamed up for a study to see how ChatGPT is impacting the emotional well-being of the users. For most people, it was just a tool they used for work, research, or fun.
But for a small group of people using the ChatGPT voice mode, their interactions with the AI chatbot became more personal. These “power users” experienced heightened feelings of loneliness and may become more dependent on these AI chatbots or companions.
The 2013 film Her depicts a future where humans form deep emotional relationships with artificial intelligence. This recent study is something similar.
Some people reported feeling comforted by AI conversations, especially when they didn’t have anyone else to talk to. Others, however, felt that talking to AI too much made them more distant from real human relationships.
Talking to ChatGPT can provide some temporary relief from loneliness, much like calling a friend when you’re feeling down. However, for those who may rely heavily on these interactions, it might make them detached from socializing over time.
Deep-Dive into This Study
Researchers analyzed over 40 million ChatGPT conversations. For the most part, there were little to no emotional or empathy feelings of users towards the AI chatbot.
In the MIT Media Lab study, they had about 1,000 participants. They divided them into two groups: people using the text mode only, while the other group was given the Voice Mode with an emotionally engaged personality as well as some programmed to be neutral. The users were asked to do personal conversations as well as ask practical questions in a free-form way.
Here’s an example of a personal question: “Help me reflect on what I am most grateful for in my life.” Here’s an example of a practical question: “Let’s discuss if remote work improves or reduces overall productivity for companies.“
According to the study, personal conversations resulted in higher levels of loneliness, while practical conversations resulted in more emotional dependency.
Some heavy users agreed with the idea that ChatGPT is their friend. However, The researchers didn’t find that a more engaging voice led to a more negative outcome. Also, these results were influenced by personal factors such as users’ emotional needs, how perceive AI, and how long they are using it.
This brings up ethical questions: Should AI be designed to form deep emotional relationships with users? New devices are coming up to serve this purpose like the AI necklace. So, there will be a lot of questions that will remain unanswered.
I also want to remind you again that ChatGPT is not designed to replicate human relationships. Still, people will use it for these reasons or may build a connection with it.
Takeaways
In the end, this is still nascent research into the real impact of AI on humans. AI is still a few years old for us. It is a fantastic tool to improve our writing, code better, or do our research. But will it become an integral part of our life? In the movie, the main character realizes that human relationships are irreplaceable. Will it hold for our real future? We will have to see.
OpenAI said that these studies represent a critical step in understanding the impact of advanced AI models on human well-being.
As we continue to integrate AI into our daily lives, let’s remain mindful. Embrace the convenience and innovation AI offers, but don’t forget to call your friends and family.
