AI Peril #5 – Social Isolation By Alec Hill

The Reality of Social Isolation

Social isolation has a wide variety of causes. But there is little doubt that the introduction of smartphones and social media a decade ago greatly increased its frequency. The share of Americans who feel socially abandoned has exploded from 31% to 53%.

AI to the Rescue?  

So, what’s big tech’s plan to reduce this epidemic of isolation that it helped create? AI, of course!

Worried that your young child is experiencing pangs of loneliness? Buy an AI teddy bear that jokes and suggests games.

Concerned about your withdrawn teenager? Hire a chatbot that promises to listen attentively, provide friction-free friendship, and is available 24/7 (no wonder that four out of ten teenagers find it easier to talk to bots than to their parents).

Grief-stricken by your wife’s death? Purchase Replika, an app that eerily allows you to continue to interact with her. How is this legerdemain accomplished? By reviewing the deceased’s videos, texts, social media posts, and emails, the bot learns to use her tone, stories, and humor.

Downsides of AI

While it is important to acknowledge that AI provides meaningful comfort for some who are lonely and distressed, there are at least three drawbacks to addressing human need in this way.

AI Advances Isolation

First, MIT researchers have found that the more we interact with bots, the more isolated we become from our fellow humans. As machine “relationships” grow, real friendships wither.

God created us to “love our neighbors (Matt. 22:39)” and to “bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2).” Our need to build community and experience kindness cannot be fully met by machines.

Like drinking brackish water, AI temporarily slakes our thirst but then leaves us dehydrated. While it provides a facsimile of companionship, it leaves us lonelier in the long run.  

AI Creates Overdependence

Second, overdependence on AI leads to social atrophy, deskilling us relationally. Over time – slowly and incrementally – we become less adept at interacting with humans due to a lack of practice.

Human relationships are incredibly messy, requiring a great deal of give-and-take. AI struggles to navigate complex skills such as managing conflicts, making compromises, and collaborating. To mature fully, it is necessary to nurture human friendships at every developmental stage.

AI Becomes a Social Crutch

Third, AI can become a social crutch. To illustrate, many young men use AI to initiate romantic conversations with women. While this may sound innocuous, what if the gap between their online persona and their real person becomes too wide?

In the novel Cyrano De Bergerac, an awkward man asks a friend to draft love letters to the woman of his affections. The result? Fear of being embarrassed when meeting her face-to-face.

Likewise, when AI enters the courtship process, men fail to learn lessons they would have otherwise mastered. As a result, many feel socially paralyzed without their AI prosthetic, and their sense of isolation increases.

Best Case Scenario?

Jan Worrell, an 85-year-old widow, lives alone in a remote location. A mother of five and grandmother of eighteen, her closest relative lives far away. It is not uncommon for her to spend an entire day without seeing another human.

At the recommendation of a local social service agency, Jan agrees to participate – free of charge – in a pilot program to host a bot named ElliQ. At first, Jan is skeptical. But over the ensuing months, her sense of isolation abates. They play bingo, study the Bible, and do tai chi together.  

A year in, her doctor finds that Jan’s short-term memory has improved and her resting heart rate has dropped to a healthier level. When asked by a friend if she lives alone, she starts to say “yes” but then corrects herself – “It’s me and my robot.”

Jan’s story shows AI companionship in its best light. Who would deny her comfort in her final years?

But…

But while it is heartwarming that many of her needs are being met, questions linger. Might the bot’s presence deter her family from stepping into the gap, rationalizing that “she’s not really alone?”

Since most AI programs are designed to be sycophantically agreeable, will ElliQ balk at confronting Jan with hard truths about declines in her physical or mental health?  

Is AI merely an upgraded version of what TV sets have become in many nursing homes – electronic babysitters? Though giving the appearance of caring, machines are incapable of sharing and accepting love. 

In this light, overuse of AI to provide companionship sounds just plainly lonely. The Lord created us to interact with other humans. We should be wary of ceding too much relational space to non-sentient entities.  

Alec Hill is President Emeritus of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA. This essay is adapted from the forthcoming fourth edition of his book Just Business: Christian Ethics in the Marketplace (IVP). 

Don’t miss the complete AI Peril Series by Alec Hill.

• AI Peril #1: Flattering Chatbots
• AI Peril #2: Diminished Critical Thinking and Your Brain
• AI Peril #3: Data Swamps
• AI Peril #4: Abuse of Women and Girls

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