It’s becoming increasingly commonplace for people to develop intimate, long-term relationships with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. At their extreme, people have “married” their AI companions in non-legally binding ceremonies, and at least two people have killed themselves following AI chatbot advice. In an opinion paper publishing April 11 in the Cell Press journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, psychologists explore ethical issues associated with human-AI relationships, including their potential to disrupt human-human relationships and give harmful advice.
“The ability for AI to now act like a human and enter into long-term communications really opens up a new can of worms,” says lead author Daniel B. Shank of Missouri University of Science & Technology, who specializes in social psychology and technology. “If people are engaging in romance with machines, we really need psychologists and social scientists involved.”
AI romance or companionship is more than a one-off conversation, note the authors. Through weeks and months of intense conversations, these AIs can become trusted companions who seem to know and care about their human partners. And because these relationships can seem easier than human-human relationships, the researchers argue that AIs could interfere with human social dynamics.
A real worry is that people might bring expectations from their AI relationships to their human relationships. Certainly, in individual cases it’s disrupting human relationships, but it’s unclear whether that’s going to be widespread.”
Daniel B. Shank, lead author, Missouri University of Science & Technology
There’s also the concern that AIs can offer harmful advice. Given AIs’ predilection to hallucinate (i.e., fabricate information) and churn up pre-existing biases, even short-term conversations with AIs can be misleading, but this can be more problematic in long-term AI relationships, the researchers say.
“With relational AIs, the issue is that this is an entity that people feel they can trust: it’s ‘someone’ that has shown they care and that seems to know the person in a deep way, and we assume that ‘someone’ who knows us better is going to give better advice,” says Shank. “If we start thinking of an AI that way, we’re going to start believing that they have our best interests in mind, when in fact, they could be fabricating things or advising us in really bad ways.”
The suicides are an extreme example of this negative influence, but the researchers say that these close human-AI relationships could also open people up to manipulation, exploitation, and fraud.
News
Scientists Just Overturned a 100-Year-Old Belief About Bacteria in the Lungs
New findings raise questions about the role of microbes living in the lungs. More than 35 trillion bacteria live throughout the human body, forming microbiomes in the gut, mouth, lungs, skin, and urogenital tract. [...]
GHCE Concept
From the preface of the book Global Health Care Equivalency in the Age of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine and Artificial Intelligence, Edited by Frank Boehm: Since the publication of my first book (Nanomedical Device and Systems [...]
Novartis, Ionis drug failure spurs questions
Pelacarsen didn’t protect heart health despite lowering levels of a protein particle, “Lp(a),” in a large clinical trial — a result with important implications for cardiovascular drug research. Dive Brief: An RNA drug from [...]
New injectable treatment helps the brain rebuild after stroke
Biomedical engineers at Duke University have created an injectable biomaterial that may help the brain recover from damage left behind by an ischemic stroke. In experiments with mice, the material transformed the cavity created [...]
Scientists Discover a Hidden “Immune Organ” Inside the Skull
Researchers discovered lymph node-like immune hubs inside skull bone marrow that appear to act as rapid-response centers for the brain. For decades, the brain was thought to operate largely apart from the immune system. [...]
Engineered tRNAs and lipid nanoparticles target nonsense mutation cystic fibrosis
Researchers have developed a potential new approach for treating a form of cystic fibrosis caused by so-called nonsense mutations, combining chemically modified transfer RNAs with lipid nanoparticles designed to deliver the therapy directly to [...]
New pancreatic cancer drug carries a $39,800 monthly list price
A groundbreaking treatment for one of the most common forms of pancreatic cancer has been approved in pill form by the FDA. Revolution Medicines’ oral tablet daraxonrasib, branded as Rasonque, reduced the risk of [...]
Researchers Have Discovered a New Way To Reduce Chronic Nerve Pain
A cancer-linked protein called BRAF may help drive chronic nerve pain, and existing cancer drugs targeting it reduced pain sensitivity in preclinical models. Chronic nerve pain can persist long after an injury and often [...]
Our books now available worldwide!
Online Sellers other than Amazon, Routledge, and IOPP Indigo Global Health Care Equivalency in the Age of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine and Artifcial Intelligence Global Health Care Equivalency In The Age Of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine And Artificial [...]
Quantum-Enabled Regenerative Health: Reimagining Wellness, Precision Health and Longevity Medicine
Introduction Healthcare is approaching a frontier where the quantum portfolio could influence not only how disease is diagnosed and treated, but how health itself is measured, modeled, predicted and preserved. Quantum computing, quantum simulation, [...]
FDA Clears First-of-Its-Kind Nonmedication Treatment for PTSD
The FDA has cleared a system that uses brain activity data to personalize magnetic stimulation for PTSD, adding a new nonmedication treatment option. Every day in the United States, approximately 17.5 veterans die by suicide, [...]
FDA approves breakthrough drug to treat advanced pancreatic cancer
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on Wednesday a drug that could extend the survival of those with metastatic pancreatic cancer. The drug, called daraxonrasib, will be sold under the brand name Rasonque [...]
AI Decodes a Hidden DNA Signal Linked to Disease-Causing Mutations
Machine learning identifies the likely “initiator” and enables new predictions about DNA mutations that can cause disease. Every human cell depends on tens of thousands of genes being switched on at the right time [...]
Pope Leo Urges Global Response to Congo’s Deadliest Ebola Outbreak
Pope Leo called for international action to address the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The epidemic has claimed over 2,500 lives and is the nation's largest recorded outbreak. The Pope emphasized [...]
Is there a summer COVID-19 surge this year? Yep, it’s ramping up again
Hantavirus. Ebola. West Nile. Measles. And, of course, cyclospora — that stomach parasite making people miserable across the country. Americans have plenty to worry about this summer. But remember COVID-19? It may not be [...]
Natural Compound in Broccoli Could Help Treat a Rare, Incurable Neurological Disease
Swinburne researchers have discovered how broccoli could help treat an extremely rare and incurable disease that affects only about 200 Australians. A naturally occurring compound in broccoli is being investigated as a possible treatment [...]
