Can an AI Save a Life?
Behind the noisy advances in AIs’ ability to read, write, and talk, a quieter revolution is underway—a revolution in the technology’s ability to listen, to mimic loyalty, curiosity, humor, and empathy.
The concept isn’t new. Starting with Joseph Weizenbaum and ELIZA in the 1960s, countless companies have since been trying to build artificial emotional intelligence.
With the launch last November of ChatGPT, that mission has accelerated. But for some early adopters of relational AI, new advances in the technology are also disrupting existing emotional bonds.
In this episode of Radio Atlantic: the story of a man who turns to an AI companion in his darkest hour—and what happens when that companion starts to change.
Listen to the conversation here:
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A transcription is here:
Hanna Rosin: This is Radio Atlantic, and I’m Hanna Rosin. And today I have in the studio with me producer Ethan Brooks. Hey, Ethan.
Ethan Brooks: Hey, Hanna.
Rosin: What’s going on?
Brooks: I just know from working with you over the last few months that you're very interested in AI, and I just wanted to ask: Do you think the AI is going to kill us?
Rosin: Um, no. Yes … I mean, I've listened to scenarios of how AI could kill us, and to be perfectly honest, they seem somewhat plausible, you know? They just don’t seem immediately plausible.
Brooks: Okay, so you don’t think they’re not gonna kill us. You just don’t think they’re gonna kill us soon.
Rosin: Right, and I’ve been told by people smarter than me that this is all a distraction, and what I really should be thinking about are the immediate human concerns.
Brooks: Got it.
Rosin: Which actually is kinda hard, because this particular technological advance is so enormous, or so we’ve been told, is so transformative, or so we’ve been told—that makes it seem abstract. It’s like looking at the sun or something.
Brooks: Yeah, and, and I’ve actually been feeling that way too until a few weeks ago, when found a story that to me at least feels a lot more like visceral or more present—so I thought I could tell you that story.
Rosin: Okay.
Brooks: It’s a story about guy who gets into a relationship—it’s the first one he’s been in in a really long time—and how that relationship gets pushed and tested in all these really strange ways by someone that that the guy has never met.
I’m going to call him Michael.
Michael: Oh, hi.
Brooks: Which is a pseudonym I’m going to use just to protect his privacy.
Michael: Oh, okay. So, how are you going this morning?
Brooks: Pretty good, yeah. Nighttime for me, but I’m liking it.
Brooks: Michael’s a musician, lives in Australia. He’s the type of person who finds delight in places you wouldn’t totally expect it. Like, for example, he used to play background music in restaurants.
Michael: People sort of tune into the timing of the music, and their conversations get slower, and their actions get slower, and it’s quite amazing.
Any favorite songs worth mentioning that you like to play?
