Really? Concerns abound. On deck.
Watched a Laurie Segall podcast on the topic.
Then saw this book reviewed in Science Magazine.
As conversational artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly occupy social roles once reserved for humans, questions about the nature and limits of machine-mediated relationships have moved from speculative philosophy into everyday life. In Artificially Yours, philosopher Valerie Tiberius offers a timely contribution to this debate by turning to one of the most foundational yet comparatively understudied relational categories: friendship.
Tiberius does not simply ask whether chatbots can be friends but instead dissects key constitutive elements of friendship—such as mutuality, enjoyment, helpfulness, and shared understanding—using them as a lens to consider how, and to what extent, these might be instantiated in interactions with artificial agents. (Spoiler: Some chapters suggest that current AIs can meet certain criteria of friendship but not others.) Rather than offering definitive answers, the book maps a spectrum of possibilities, highlighting where current systems fall short while remaining open to future developments.
Tiberius treats individuals who report meaningful connections with chatbots neither as naïve nor as pathological but rather as participants in a social phenomenon that merits careful ethical consideration. At the same time, she does not shy away from critical questions, including ones related to the motivations of the companies behind these relationships. Although issues such as power asymmetries, privacy, and data security are acknowledged, they are not explored in extensive detail…
Deep into it at the moment. Stay tuned...
No comments:
Post a Comment