Can AI Chatbot cannot replace human friendship?

I don’t normally get overwhelmed when it comes to parenting stuff but since updating The Online Safety Talk inside Top Talks - I immediately ramped up my Online Safety Talks with both of my kids - simply due to the rapid progression of AI technology.

AI tech has come at us so fast over the past 12 months that we, as parents and adults, haven’t been able to adequately understand the effect of integrating AI tech into our lives - let alone how it’s impacting our kids’ views of AI.

This article from the American Psychological Association was a good read about the shifting landscape of AI technology on youth. Here are some of the highlights:

• Humans are only able to manage around 150 high-quality relationships, including offline and online relationships (and the highest-quality relationships must include some kind of in-person interactions).

• Kids feel pressured to respond to posts and texts immediately due to the continuous availability that current technology offers. (This may contribute to their comfort of AI chatbot use - which are always online and available).

• Teens who use chatbots like ChatGPT aren’t differentiating between a chatbot mirroring their own inputs when responding to them compared to an authentic human counselor. (They may view the guidance and counseling from the AI as genuine and not harmful).

• Because teens are still developing their pre-frontal cortex they are more prone to impulsive decision-making and AI chatbots feed into this by encouraging risky behavior.

I’m not overwhelmed by the AI tech itself, but I’m looking at how quickly it’s evolving and what that could mean for the sex talks.

One of the areas this article did not discuss, was how AI chatbots could influence romantic and sexual relationship development of adolescents. Think about it - AI’s are designed to be engaging to the user and keep the user interested in continuing to engage with them. What if adolescents find AI chatbots to be more engaging as a friend AND as a romantic partner? What if they start to view AI chatbots as more understanding to them because they continuously agree with them - on everything - because that’s what they’re designed to do?