Issue AI chatbots as companions and therapists

Summary

The report warns that social use of AI chatbots can take unhealthy forms and may lead people to pay less attention to human friendship and contact. In an individualistic society friendships are less self-evident, whereas a chatbot is always friendly and the contact is frictionless. A growing number of people have a friendship with a chatbot while having few people to rely on in daily life, and many use chatbots as a therapist, partly because of waiting lists. Yet the current generation of chatbot apps is generally judged to lack transparency and reliability and to be risky in crisis situations. Chatbots tend to tell users what they want to hear, and the interaction may be addictive and could foster alienation, paranoia or depression. The report places a heavy responsibility on technology companies not to lose sight of what is ethically sound.