ChatGPT conversations linked to increased feelings of isolation
Sewell Setzer was a happy child - before he fell in love with a chatbot and took his own life at 14. His mother has now filed a lawsuit against the most powerful company in the world. If you’re in a committed and monogamous relationship and you begin sending flirty or explicit texts to another person, most people would consider that…if not outright cheating, then certainly cheating-adjacent. What happens if you do the same but the recipient of those texts is an AI chatbot? It’s something to file under “ethical questions that didn’t exist 10 years ago,” but it’s also something more and more people are reckoning with.
In a recent study conducted by OpenAI and MIT Media Lab, a small percentage of test subjects who used ChatGPT extensively reported increased loneliness and emotional dependence, as well as reduced social interaction.
ChatGPT as an emotional refuge
Youtuber Tomás Mazza shared how ChatGPT serves as an emotional nocturnal support. He has customized his AI, called “Light”, to remember his story and listen to it without judging. Although he is still in psychiatric treatment, he confesses that this resource has helped him reflect on his life, ego, and more.
A new pair of studies from MIT Media Lab and OpenAI found that those who use the chatbot most heavily also experience the most loneliness. The catch-22: it’s unclear whether this is caused by the chatbot itself or if lonely individuals are simply more likely to seek out emotional bonds. Researchers analyzed millions of interactions and found that only a small number of users rely on ChatGPT for...
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