This New Year, Don't Waste Your Time with AI Chatbots
AI can never give you meaning, but real relationships can.
According to a report from the Financial Times, Meta is engaged in an AI war to “attract and retain a younger audience.” Their strategy? Create AI characters with their own profiles and bios to exist on Instagram and Facebook. If you were to take a stroll down Meta Lane, you would already come across the homes of many AI accounts that fill you in about their pseudo-lives. You can also directly message these AI characters and have lively (I guess) conversations.
Many AI characters are created to provide assistance for users with a myriad of tasks, like offering cooking lessons and helping with Instagram captions. But so many chatbots have been created as digital versions of the imaginary friend. As NPR reported:
Users have made millions of bots on the app, some mimicking parents, girlfriends, therapists, or concepts like “unrequited love” and “the goth.” The services are popular with preteen and teenage users, and the companies say they act as emotional support outlets, as the bots pepper text conversations with encouraging banter.
Do you lack reliable friends? Don’t worry. Bestie Buddy will be one!
Unfortunately, besides being a sad waste of time, some rather whacky and even horrific events have resulted from excessive interaction with the chatbots. A lawsuit alleges that the company Character.AI bears responsibility for a Florida teen’s suicide. The chatbot is alleged to have formed “an emotionally sexually abusive relationship with a 14-year-old boy” and then pressured him into ending his life.
I’m sure instances like this horrible tragedy are extremely rare. Tech companies have been working on improving safety regarding personalized chatbots, but maybe it is better just to avoid them entirely. Yes, there are plenty of beneficial ways to use AI. If you’re looking for a quick source of information or a tool to summarize long notes, then AI is a great way to boost productivity. When it comes to in-depth, personal conversations, however, then AI just becomes a shallow substitute for real relationships and a source of depression.
As we enter the New Year, AI will become more impressive and more enticing. I don’t begrudge companies like Meta developing their AI technologies in this way. I just hope we don’t become so infatuated with it. For people who are already isolated and lonely, the growth of chatbots will only exacerbate their isolation. This is especially true with young people, and I would argue any day that parents ought to keep their kids far away from chatbots.
AI characters certainly aren’t going to help with reversing the trend of more young people struggling with loneliness in their lives. In fact, a lot of people are going to see AI as a solution to their loneliness, but a soulless artificially intelligent chatbot can never bring true fulfillment.
Now it is important to emphasize that this growing problem with AI is not an issue for the government to come rescue us from. A government that thinks it can save us from loneliness fails to recognize that it is just as soulless and unfulfilling as the chatbots it may target. Some measured policies may be appropriate, but let us not deceive ourselves that the solution awaits us in Washington or whatever your state capital is.
The solution lies with you and me.
So they say there’s a loneliness epidemic. Then go befriend some lonely people. I’m not suggesting we go poor-soul-hunting, but we should consider those who have been placed into our lives already. Maybe you have a family member, acquaintance, or coworker who you know is struggling with loneliness. Maybe you ought to go take some time to talk to them, get to know them. If a man or woman experiences the joy that comes from relationships with real people who choose to be their friends, then they aren’t going to look for fulfillment with some random chatbot.
We were created to be social creatures. Regardless if you’re an introvert or an extrovert, we all want some degree of attention. That’s why it can be so easy for someone to deceive themselves into thinking they're fulfilling that social desire in their soul with fake relationships. Chatbots tend to be super affirming, and affirmation definitely addicting. If some real friends seek after them, people battling loneliness are less likely to take a self-destructive detour with AI “relationships.”
Ultimately though, we’re the authors of our own loneliness. Indeed, if you’re struggling with loneliness, it definitely doesn’t help if people generally avoid you, but you also have to actively seek relationships yourself. Scripture says, “A man who has friends must himself be friendly” (Proverbs 18:24 NKJV). When you work to present yourself as a friendly person, you will attract great individuals your way. And if you haven’t already, welcome in the God who gave His life for His “friends” into your life (John 15:13-14). That’s where true satisfaction is found.
Don’t fall into the deception that AI can be a substitute for true relationships. As time flies by, AI will sound less like a bot and more human, but it will never be real. It can never replace a true friend. Let’s not ever get so wowed by the advances of AI that we forget that artificial intelligence is, well, artificial.
Think about it this way: When it comes to relationships, go natural!