Is Your AI Assistant Becoming An Imaginary Friend?

For better or worse, the age of AI is upon us. There's no stopping it. And as of today, there are no guardrails to protect us or our kids from it. Artificial intelligence is working its way into all kinds of businesses, Software applications, and our personal lives. 

And it's impacting people of all ages. 

According to axios.com,
‘People are increasingly turning to Microsoft's Copilot chatbot for advice about their health, careers and relationships, according to data Microsoft first shared with Axios. Understanding how people use Copilot and similar tools is key to teasing out their benefits versus the risks.
Researchers found that on the desktop users see Copilot as a productivity tool. But on mobile they see it more as "a conversational partner."’ 

And this brings us to the idea of an imaginary friend. Movies have been dealing with the idea of imaginary friends Since 1950. When you look at something like an AI chat bot that tailors its interactions with you depending on whether or not you are on your laptop or you're talking to it on a cell phone, for some people, it might be easy to turn that into your imaginary friend. 

Call it an AI companion if you want to, but I call it an imaginary friend. AI chat bots are designed to interact with you. To give you a positive feeling about what they're saying, to give you a positive feeling about yourself so you will come back and use it again. 

You could very easily take a movie like Harvey for instance, and modernize it with an AI chat bot. 

One of my favorite movies that was produced in the not too distant past was a movie called JoJo Rabbit which features a child with an imaginary friend, who just happens to be Adolf Hitler.  

Just imagine the scenario with an AI chat bot interacting with your child or grandchild as Adolf Hitler. Without any kind of technical guardrails it is possible. 

More and more people in our country and around the world are using AI chat bots as companions providing emotional support. But what happens when the end user becomes dependent on these systems. Users that develop a strong attraction and dependency and then begin to rely on these systems for emotional stability. 

Add to that privacy issues and the possibility of misusing personal information.  

For better or worse, it's a new frontier of personal interaction, and I don't think any of us are prepared for the repercussions. 

On a personal note, my new favorite movie about imaginary friends is the movie “IF”. (It stands for Imaginary Friend.) I've always been a fan of Ryan Reynolds acting, and it has a sweet, gentle tone to it. Along with being just a little bit subversive. In some ways, just like an AI chat bot.