The Risks of Artificial Relationships - Sherry Turkle with Nicholas Thompson

AI wants to be your friend. And your therapist. And your lover. It’s not an entirely new offer, author and MIT professor Sherry Turkle reminds us, but it’s one that’s grown more dire as AI has improved. In a conversation with Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, Turkle describes the dangers of anthropomorphizing generative AI, gleaned from hundreds of conversations she conducted (with real humans) for her new book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk To Machines. What do we lose when we make machines our best friends? And what, if anything, do we stand to gain? Turkle details her own experience creating a simulation of her mother, and the wounds that we risk reopening.
Produced independently of The Atlantic’s editorial staff. Supporting sponsor: PwC.
(00:00) Introduction
(03:45) The surprising return of relational machines
(07:35) Why Sherry wrote her new book, Artificial Intimacy
(11:18) The problem with delegating parenting, education, and therapy to AI
(19:07) Why people seek emotional support from chatbots
(24:40) Sherry’s concept of “dual consciousness”
(29:43) Regulating generative AI use for kids
(32:42) Can college students still read and write?
(37:32) Distinguishing between useful AI tools and harmful delegations
(41:32) How chatbots mimicking deceased loved ones can cause new psychological harm
(50:56) What Sherry would do with unlimited AI funds
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