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Loneliness is a feeling all of us experience every now and then. Unfortunately, for a lot of people in our society, it’s a feeling that they experience often. Particularly among our elderly population, loneliness has become more and more prevalent. For many of these people, contacts are limited, and the lack of social interaction can have quite an impact on their lives. Whether it is just someone to talk to about the news, or to share gossips with, many of these people just need someone who listens. But with an aging population, and younger people’s lives becoming increasingly busier, could perhaps generative AI play a role in addressing these issues?

I recently came across an article that showed a new product that utilizes AI to help combat loneliness in elderly homes. The device consists of a ‘head’ with a speaker and camera in the form of a face, and a tablet as its body. The device first and foremost allows elderly people to come in contact with their friends and relatives in a more ‘human’ way than a video connection with a regular tablet or laptop would provide. But more importantly, the device also provides the possibility to be a conversation partner to people when their relatives are not available. By making use of generative AI technology, the device can react to questions and comments of the user in real-time. This functionality can be vital in addressing loneliness in the aging population, which is vital in reducing health risks for older people, recent research has shown (National Institute on Aging, 2019).

As AI technology continues to develop, it is likely that the distinction between human and AI-powered conversations will be increasingly harder to make. This raises the ethical question; can and should AI replace human social interaction? Personally, I think replacement should be out of the question, but I think it can be a useful tool in addressing the problem of loneliness in our society.

And you? Could you ever see yourself using an AI as a discussion partner?

References

Social isolation, loneliness in older people pose health risks. (2019, 23 april). National Institute on Aging. https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/social-isolation-loneliness-older-people-pose-health-risks

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As we all know, ChatGPT is the hype of the moment; an AI based tool which you can ask any question and it will answer. Not only informative questions, but action-related questions as well, like ‘write a poem’ or ‘translate this text’. For instance, this can come in handy in these situations:

• Asking for new inspirations of recipes when you don’t know what to cook.
• Asking for codes for your new econometric business model.
• Asking for professionally written e-mail to your boss.

The tasks that require the AI to generate creative responses are especially significant. They take away work from us, such as: As an adult, having an office-job, you can ask ChatGPT to write your e-mails, or to improve them. As a student, you can ask Chat GPT to write your assignment. As a primary- or secondary school student, you can ask ChatGPT to summarize all your mandatory reading materials, which are often provided in the online version, instead of the old-fashioned books. How convenient. In each part of your life, Chat GPT can make the usually hard time-consuming tasks a lot easier! Having used ChatGPT myself, I am very aware of these convenient advantages. Initially, I used the AI tool for the generation of some sentences in an email. A few months later, I now use it for most of my emails and work-related content. However, I recently came to the conclusion that a lot of my ‘personal work’ was not in fact produced by me, but by the AI. One can wonder, is this the right way forward?

Here are some intriguing facts: Did you know that the attention span of the average human has decreased by over 25% (Mark, 2023)? Did you know that dependency on AI tools, like ChatGPT or Grammarly, can seriously harm critical thinking and problem solving skills (Riaz, 2023)?

Nowadays, we live in a fast-paced world, where everything needs to be done quicker and easier. We forget how to challenge ourselves and cannot even find the time nor the effort to focus on writing that e-mail, that assignment or summary. Scientists believe that ChatGPT plays a significant role in explaining the beforementioned facts (Riaz, 2023).

Long story short, I believe Chat GPT can be viewed as a blessing and a curse. It is only how you use and act upon it: we shouldn’t underestimate our own abilities.

References

Riaz, S. (2023). Should students be using online tools and AI to study? eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/should-students-be-using-online-tools-and-ai-to-study

Mark, G. (2023). Why our attention spans are shrinking, with Gloria Mark, PhD. https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/attention-spans