Caitlin Green

Continuing our conversation about AI after the break.

With mental health, if a chatbot can comfort you, listen to you, even act like the perfect friend, why do studies show that human interaction beats them when it comes to dealing with our loneliness?

I'm David Cooper.

This is the last show in the psychology behind why real people beat robots in a moment.

Are you feeling lonely?

Well, these days you could turn to an AI chatbot for things like emotional support.

You could vent to it.

You could confess to it.

You could bond with it.

And it might feel like a friend, but can a robot actually replace a real human connection?

Or does talking to your perfect friend just end up making you feel lonelier?

Well, that's what we're going to discuss here with psychology researcher at the University of British Columbia, Ronnie Lee, who's done study on things like this.

Ronnie, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

I don't think there's any stopping this, whether we like the sound of it or not.

People chatting with, you know, large language models, chat GPT tools like this to sort of replace friendship, to replace human interaction.

What made you curious whether a chatbot is a good replacement for a human companion?

At least on its surface.

I mean, I've heard about things like AI sycophancy, which is a fancy way of saying AIs that validate you a little too much might not be good for you.

But let's talk about your research.