Experts have sounded the alarm over the growing use of artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT to help people cope with loneliness.
These systems are increasingly trusted by a number of people as a kind of confidant or friend. But the new report in British Medical Journal It warns that reliance on such chatbots can cause concern, especially among young people.
They also call for new strategies to help address the loneliness and isolation that drives people to talk to chatbots in the first place. Doctors have long warned that loneliness itself is a public health concern — and two years ago the US surgeon general said it was an epidemic of concern on a par with smoking.
“We may be witnessing a generation that learns to form emotional bonds with beings that lack the capacity for human-like empathy, care, and coordination,” Susan Shelmerdin and Matthew Noor write in this context. BMJ Article
They note that studies have even shown that people are actually more satisfied during serious conversations with AI tools than with other humans.
They note that clinicians should consider whether people using chatbots in potentially problematic or dangerous ways is an environmental risk factor when assessing people’s mental health.
This may mean that doctors do some gentle research on how people use chatbots, especially if people are particularly at risk of loneliness. They suggest they may then ask specific questions about how to use them and even depend on talking to such systems.
This paper acknowledges that such AI systems may improve many patients, including those who experience loneliness. But it notes that there is currently little way to assess how healthy people use such systems, and that the creators of such tools may judge their success based on “superficial and myopic criteria of engagement” rather than prioritizing “long-term well-being.”
The article “Artificial Intelligence Chatbots and the Loneliness Crisis” was published in the magazine today BMJ.
