Therefore it becomes another case of "is an AI friend better than no friend?" Furthermore, I think that AI, if done correctly, can not only improve society but actually help in-person socialization: by helping people develop social skills and encouraging them to meet other real people. For example, an "AI companion" that you talk with could analyze your personality to be the ideal friend or SO, then connect you to another real person whose appearance and personality are near what it imitates. An AI that has your attention and trust can also critique your real personality flaws and encourage you to fix them (in a supportive way*).
However, current AI companions are too dumb to be effective; for example, they don't develop accurate social skills or criticize personality flaws, because they're unrealistically affectionate and agreeable. Another problem is that companies aren't directly incentivized to make their AIs give good advice and connect real people, companies are incentivized to make money; and it's probably cheaper to get lots of dumb people to pay for a dumb, agreeable chatbot than invest in a smart chatbot that criticizes them and facilitates its own replacement. There is some demand for the latter though, so perhaps someday, a smaller company could develop an AI companion that is genuinely a net benefit to society; and there may be some people whom even a dumb AI companion improves their lives better than nothing.
* emphasizing that self-improvement will help you in the real world, and reminding you that you still have value and deserve love, but standing firm on the criticism. Not like current AI which fawns over and agrees with everything
toomuchtodo•6mo ago
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/07/health/surgeon-general-partin...
anovikov•6mo ago
msgodel•6mo ago
Frankly I think it's fine. PR and marketing people have put a lot of effort into making people anxious about this when the reality is that socializing in a late stage imperial society tends to be a net loss for most people and they are actually better off alone.
The reality is that the technology is incidental. People are grabbing whatever they can to solve their problems and the technology just happens to be there. It's certainly better than the last solution (Instagram and friends.)
throwawaysleep•6mo ago
For me, I increasingly think that I found community tolerable, but only for lack of a better option. In a world of LLMs, I’m gonna have a much more interesting conversation with ChatGPT then I will at dinner with strangers.
toomuchtodo•6mo ago
It's work, it's time, but community is a function of effort and intentionality. If I want interesting conversation, I come here, because mods keep the bots out.
nonameiguess•6mo ago
wil421•6mo ago