> It's just going to provide a weak substitute for actual socialization. The author of the article calls it "artifical empathy". But it could have a profound s

> It's just going to provide a weak substitute for actual socialization. The author of the article calls it "artifical empathy". But it could have a profound socio-economic effect. > Our argument was that, in certain ways, the latest crop of A.I.s might make for better company than many real people do It is a fascinating and uncomfortable proposition. Some users of the early chatbot ELIZA [1] were convinced that it had real understanding. (Weizenbaum: "I had not realized ... that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people.") Can a society find itself unable to socialise itself, can an entire generational cohort of people become socially dysfunctional to the point where it is more "satisfying" to interact with "artificial empathy"? Given enough disinformation, failing education standards, and outright propaganda... the answer seems to be yes. [1] _ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA