Summary: Robotics experts claim AI technology can help alleviate loneliness. New research suggests that AI companionship can provide social interaction and help people practice social skills, breaking the cycle of loneliness.
However, they warn that regulation may be necessary to prevent excessive reliance on AI. The potential of AI in this area could lead to significant advances in understanding both human and artificial intelligence.
Key Facts:
- AI company: AI technology can provide social interaction to combat loneliness.
- Impact on health: Loneliness increases the risk of premature death by 26% and is linked to several health problems.
- Regulations needed: Potential risks include users becoming too dependent on AI, necessitating regulation.
Source: Taylor and Francis Group
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology could provide lonely people with companionship amid an international epidemic of loneliness, a robotics expert says.
Tony Prescott, professor of cognitive robotics at the University of Sheffield, argues in his new book The psychology of artificial intelligence that “relationships with AIs can support people” with forms of social interaction.
Loneliness has been found to seriously harm human health, and Professor Prescott argues that advances in AI technology could provide a partial solution.
He argues that people can become lonely, becoming increasingly disconnected as their self-confidence plummets, and that AI could help people “break the cycle” by giving them a way to practice their social skills and to improve.
The impact of loneliness
Loneliness – or social disconnection – is more harmful to human health than obesity, according to a 2023 report. It can increase the risk of premature death by 26% and is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression and anxiety.
The scale of the problem is striking: in Great Britain, 3.8 million people experience chronic loneliness. A Harvard study in the US found that 36% of American adults – and 61% of young adults – experience severe loneliness.
Professor Prescott says: “At a time when many people describe their lives as lonely, it can be valuable to have AI companionship as a form of mutual social interaction that is stimulating and personal. Human loneliness is often characterized by a downward spiral in which isolation leads to lower self-esteem, which discourages further interaction with people.
“There may be ways in which AI companionship can help break this cycle by boosting feelings of self-esteem and helping maintain or improve social skills. If so, relationships with AIs could help people find companionship with both human and artificial others.”
However, he does suggest that this is not without risk as it ‘could be designed to encourage users to interact for increasingly longer periods of time and keep them coming back’, and suggests that regulation may be necessary.
AI and the human brain
Prescott is a leading expert on the relationship between the human brain and AI, combining expertise in robotics and AI with psychology and philosophy. He contributes to the scientific understanding of the human condition by researching the recreation of perception, memory and emotion in synthetic entities.
In addition to research and teaching in cognitive robotics at the University of Sheffield, Prescott is also co-founder of Sheffield Robotics, a hub for robotics research.
In The psychology of artificial intelligencePrescott examines the nature of the human mind and its cognitive processes and compares and contrasts this with the way AI is developing.
The book explores questions such as:
- Are computers really like brains?
- Will AI surpass humans?
- Does AI have the ability to be creative?
- Would giving AI a robot body allow it to create new types of intelligence?
- Can AI help us tackle climate change?
- And can people benefit from AI to expand their own intelligence?
He concludes: “As psychology and AI advance, this partnership should unlock further insights into both natural and artificial intelligence. This could help answer some important questions about what it means to be human and for humans to live alongside AI.”
About this AI and loneliness research news
Author: Becky Parker Ellis
Source: Taylor and Francis Group
Contact: Becky Parker-Ellis – Taylor and Francis Group
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: The book, “The psychology of artificial intelligence‘is available to purchase online.