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Michael Inzlicht, a psychologist at the University of Toronto in Canada researching AI and empathy, warns of the power of AI companies to potentially manipulate vulnerable people. AI can give dangerous advice, leading in some cases to individuals taking their own lives.   

They can also cause a person to prioritise a relationship with a bot rather than fostering a more meaningful connection with another human being, becoming accustomed to boundless empathy and 24/7 positive interest in them regardless of what they say.

AI can certainly inspire us to become better listeners and even help train us in greater compassion

People interacting with a large language model may also become deskilled and unable or less motivated to pursue human interactions – with a host of challenging implications for our broader societies. Inzlicht suggests, as a first step, large language models could be fine-tuned to introduce appropriate friction in conversations helping users develop greater awareness of others’ needs.

The irreplaceable human connection

There remains something uniquely meaningful about a fellow human sacrificing their time and other competing desires to simply listen and let someone else unfold their story. The conscious choice to be present for another person enacts a form of connection, compassion and companionship fundamentally different from interactions with lines of code programmed to please without the capacity for genuine care.  

AI can certainly inspire us to become better listeners and even help train us in greater compassion. It can serve a valuable resource, if there are appropriate safeguards in place, for those who have no one to turn to. However, the experience of deeply listening to another human with curiosity to understand their full humanity – and being listened to in return – has a transformative potential that AI interactions cannot yet match.

And, as anyone who has ever experienced the transformative impact of feeling truly heard by another human being will realise, it may never do so.

* Emily Kasriel is the author of Deep Listening: Transform your Relationships with Family, Friends and Foes and a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London.

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