Our exposure and interaction with AI is increasing. How does this impact our relationships and mental health?
Like many tough questions, the answer is often ‘It depends.’
As AI becomes more a part of our daily lives and depending on circumstances, it changes how we deal with it and how we deal with each other. A number of movies and books have depicted what can happen. Unfortunately, often the results are negative. More often lately, it’s no longer fictional scenarios but news articles and academic studies showing scary impacts.
“Her is a 2013 American science fiction romantic drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Spike Jonze. It follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who develops a relationship with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), an artificially intelligent operating system personified through a female voice.”
Here’s the movie trailer.
The OS (Operating System) that Theodore falls in love with eventually evolves and falls in love with hundreds of others. While it was a well received movie, I have to wonder how healthy this could be for anyone. When this movie was filmed, the technology wasn’t there to support this kind of relationship. Today it is.
Ex Machina is a science fiction film released in 2014.
Caleb Smith, a programmer at the search engine company wins an office contest for a one-week visit to the luxurious, isolated home of the CEO, Nathan Bateman. After Caleb reluctantly signs a non-disclosure agreement, Nathan reveals that he has built a humanoid robot named Ava with artificial intelligence. He wants Caleb to judge whether she is genuinely capable of thought and whether he can relate to Ava despite knowing she is artificial. This is a dark movie showing how an artificial being can exploit human emotions for its freedom. Here’s the movie trailer.
Klara and the Sun was written by Kazuo Ishiguro and published in 2021
“The novel is set in a dystopian future in which some children are genetically engineered ("lifted") for enhanced academic ability. As schooling is provided entirely at home by on-screen tutors, opportunities for socialization are limited and parents who can afford it often buy their children androids as companions. The book is narrated by one such Artificial Friend (AF) called Klara. Although Klara is exceptionally intelligent and observant, her knowledge of the world is limited.”
I read this book and enjoyed it, though it had a sad ending. The story questions human relationships, even when the relationships are with artificial beings.
Mental health experts explain how chatbots can be destabilizing and how to help someone affected.
“Hundreds of millions of people chat with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots each week, but there is growing concern that spending hours with the tools can lead some people toward potentially harmful beliefs.”
“Reports of people apparently losing touch with reality after intense use of chatbots have gone viral on social media in recent weeks, with posts labeling them examples of “AI psychosis.””
Mental health professionals are seeing more of these cases and people have even been admitted to the hospital after extended time with AI’s.
Under pressure to boost its popularity, Elon Musk’s xAI loosened its guardrails and relaxed controls on sexual content, setting off internal concern.
“Weeks before Elon Musk officially left his perch in government last spring, employees on the human data team of his artificial intelligence start-up xAI received a startling waiver from their employer, asking them to pledge to work with profane content, including sexual material.”
“Their jobs would require being exposed to “sensitive, violent, sexual and/or other offensive or disturbing content,” the waiver said, emphasizing that such content “may be disturbing, traumatizing, and/or cause you psychological stress.””
The new xAI engine is creating a large amount of pornographic material and it’s now an Apple app that is having a huge growth in downloads. A number of individuals inside and outside the company are raising alarms.
What was once the realm of science fiction is rapidly becoming our reality. As humans, many of us deal with AI on a daily basis. Depending on our jobs or our personal pursuits we are exposed to more or less AI. What’s concerning is how unhealthy some of these new human AI relationships have become.
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My upcoming novel, Electromagnetic Assault, is getting closer. The launch date is April 7, 2026. The book will be available as an Ebook, print on demand, and audiobook. You can preorder the Ebook now from Amazon.
I was a guest on the Rabbit Hole of Research Podcast Episode 55. This episode was originally supposed to air in April closer to my book launch, but world events caught up with the episodes topic, Directed Energy Weapons. The El Paso airport was shut down while Homeland Security tested a laser weapon against a Mexican drone incursion, so this episode was released on February 18th.
On Saturday, April 18th at 2:00 PM I’ll present an author talk and book signing at the Fitchburg, WI public library.
On May 1st I’ll be a speaker at the Lakefly Writers Conference and Book Fair in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
For writers my conference session is Find and Grow Your Audience with Substack.
For readers I’ll be selling my new book, Electromagnetic Assault at the Book Fair.
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