Rose Rimler

I mean, other researchers actually have found something similar.

There was a study where the researchers had people chat online to either a chatbot or a human online.

And they asked them to talk about something that was emotional, to disclose some emotional stuff, which can have some benefits to you, like the catharsis of discussing something emotional.

And then they measured to see, did they get the same benefits talking to, just having that kind of emotional conversation with the chatbot?

They knew it was a chatbot versus a human.

They knew it was a human.

And they found it was pretty much the same.

It was equally beneficial.

Okay.

So there's something to this illusion thing, right?

Like we know it's a magic trick, but it still looks like the page is moving, you know, to use Julian's metaphor.

OK, so if they're like pulling the right levers, I can see how that would make you feel better.

And I think that's for some people in particular, this illusion might be more powerful than for other people.

So another study I want to tell you about is actually pretty shocking.

This one was done at Stanford.

Researchers surveyed about a thousand students who were already using an AI companion app called Replica.

So people who had already, like, found this app and downloaded it and, like, had an AI companion for a while.

And it was kind of a survey of these people.

30 of the people of this group of 1,000 told the researchers that talking to the chatbot stopped them from killing themselves.

Whoa.