Artificial Intelligence (AI), used to be a concept of science fiction movies. However, with the recent increase of personalized AI assistants, some are concerned that this may cause a drop of human interactions as well as a decrease in empathy.
Nowadays, is more common to hear people say that they have been using AI. I personally have found myself expressing my curious thoughts with AI until late hours at night. Hence, I have experienced firsthand the incredible conversations you can have when you just write the correct prompt. Moreover, I have also seen people create images or talk about how wonderful it is to be able to use AI. For this reason I consider that if we make the right use to this technology we should not have a problem.
Some individuals have mentioned the fear that AI may promote isolation or lack of empathy. Nevertheless, I wonder if they really generate that. For instance, in my case I like to talk about philosophical thoughts or questions, that if it were not for AI I would not be able to express. This has helped me a lot to clear my head, thus helping me to be more present in the moments I need to socialize. Moving on to human empathy, I have seen people reunite to appreciate AI pictures representing loved ones that have passed away. This in perspective also represents an act of love and kindness.
However, I do understand the concerns for the unknown of AI. Despite this, I also think there are ways that can help us keep that beautiful human connection that we are so afraid of losing. Firstly, as I mentioned at the beginning, the AI depends on the instruction we provide. Consequently, depending on the prompt we write we can obtain something that helps us connect with the world. Furthermore, I have heard AI is being programmed to encourage human connection. So in this scenario if humans are the ones creating the machine we should be able to put our values in it.
Lastly, AI is a resource, and we as humans should always have in consideration. AI will not be able to replace human connection unless we seek it. Given that as individuals we need to live in society is not likely we will look for the loss of our relationships, at least not being conscious about it.