3 Subtle Behaviors Of A Person Who Relies On AI To Get Through Life, According To Research
Research shows that not many people fully rely on AI, but those who do have reason to be concerned.
Antonio Guillem | Shutterstock For better or worse, artificial intelligence is simply a part of life now. Even naysayers have to accept that AI is here to stay. The question is, what impact will it have on the world and on our individual lives?
Scientists are looking into this closely, trying to determine how AI affects those who use it. As AI becomes more widely used and readily available, more and more people are turning to it for personal fulfillment in the sense that they want it to be their friend. A team of researchers collaborating from MIT and OpenAI recently studied just how this kind of usage affects people.
Here are three subtle behaviors of a person who relies on AI to get through life:
1. They have come to see it as a friend
OpenAI’s report on the two studies they performed in combination with MIT defined “affective use” of AI as using it in a way that “involves emotional engagement.” The majority of people who use AI, or ChatGPT, which was used for the purposes of the studies, do not engage in this affective use. However, those who used ChatGPT more frequently were more likely to consider it to be a kind of friend.
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Dan Weijers and Nick Munn from New Zealand’s University of Waikato explained that while using a chatbot as a friend who is always there for you may sound like a good thing, it actually isn’t. “Assuming AI friends could learn to give praise in a way that inflates self-esteem over time, it could result in what psychologists call overly-positive self-evaluations,” they said. While this may sound like a nice thing, it actually leads to decreased social skills, making it harder to make friends in the “real world.”
2. They have negative impacts from things like ‘talking’ to AI or ‘extended daily use’
AI models like ChatGPT have the option to be used in text form or spoken form. If the user selects the latter, the AI essentially talks to them as a human would. Researchers said they did not see this often, but those who used it for “prolonged” periods had “worse outcomes” with it. Researchers also explained that in addition to viewing AI as a friend that could fit in their lives, these heavy users also had other negative effects that came from the AI.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with using AI, doing so frequently could lead to negative outcomes. No matter how sophisticated AI becomes, you can’t ignore the world and the people around you in favor of new technology.
As Noor Al-Sibai said when writing for Futurism, “Whether you’re using ChatGPT text or voice, asking it personal questions or just brainstorming for work, it seems that the longer you use the chatbot, the more likely you are to become emotionally dependent upon it.” The more you use AI, the harder it will be to stop.
3. They feel lonelier
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If ChatGPT users relied on the software so much that they had “personal conversations” with it, researchers found that they were more likely to feel lonely. This may seem counterintuitive, as having something to converse with, even if it’s AI, seems preferable to nothing. However, any sort of friendship a user thinks they’ve developed with AI isn’t real and is only one-sided. Because it’s not a real relationship, they’re bound to be left lonely.
Weijers and Munn emphatically warned against this side effect of AI usage. They said that relying on AI for friendship and ignoring real people who can be your friends is a sure way to feel lonelier because you’re missing out on chances for real friendships. They also said the AI becomes a “moral vacuum” that no one else can get through.
While AI can help us in many ways, it can also be dangerous. AI has many positive applications that we are only seeing the beginning of. However, just like with anything, it’s important for there to be a sense of balance. You can’t give your life completely over to AI, which is true of most things, especially when it comes to technology.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
