Caitlin Green

You created a chatbot named Sam to be someone's ideal friend.

What did you end up testing?

What did Sam actually end up doing with some of your participants?

And did the chatbot show things like empathy and appearing to care?

Did it act like the perfect friend?

Before we get to whether it felt like the perfect friend to the people you spoke to.

Yeah, Isabel.

I have the same problems with her, actually.

Okay, so the chatbot was able to mimic this supportive side of the conversation to the woman on the other end who's complaining about Isabel to the people that are using it as a friend.

Did they feel less lonely?

What did they report feeling after these interactions?

All right, so you can design these things as good as you want, but at the end of the day, the people on the other end...

Feel the same amount of loneliness.

Is there something to be said for that distraction?

Like you mentioned that scene at 2 a.m., you're laying in bed, you're feeling lonely, you can't sleep.

Is it at least a positive distraction from the existential dread from the crushing loneliness?

Or maybe just recommend reaching out to a human friend.

My loneliness numbing thing when I'm at home and I feel that dread is just watching mindless television.

So I guess it's maybe no better than that.

The people you tested this bot out on with were first-year university students.