Psychologists, lawyers, parents and advocacy groups have gathered for the first ever annual conference of AI and its impact on human psychology.
Transcript
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
As artificial intelligence increasingly becomes part of people’s everyday lives, there are a lot of inevitable questions like, how does technology affect how children learn? And how does it affect how people work and relate to each other? Psychologists, policy experts and online safety advocates from around the world have gathered this week at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to discuss all of these questions. And somebody else who asked a lot of questions about all of this, NPR health correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee, is there as well. As a heads up in this conversation, we will talk about suicide. Hey, Rhitu.
RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: You’ve been there since Sunday. Give us the highlights so far.
CHATTERJEE: Yeah, so a big part of the conversation among the members of this newly founded AI Psychological Research Coalition has been about children and teens and young people in general because research tells us that a significant number of young people are using chatbots, and many are becoming emotionally dependent on them. One soon-to-be-published study found that among more than 2,000 middle schoolers surveyed in one state, over 50% are already using chatbots. I spoke with study author Mitch Prinstein. He’s a researcher at UNC Chapel Hill and one of the researchers convening this conference with experts from seven countries and the World Health Organization. Here’s Prinstein.
MITCH PRINSTEIN: They tell us they’re using it for reasons they would not share with their parents and teachers, and we’re finding that about two to four kids in every classroom are already saying they would prefer interacting with an AI chatbot more than an actual human peer.
CHATTERJEE: And, you know, Prinstein and his colleagues are troubled by that.
DETROW: I mean, I can see why.
CHATTERJEE: Yep.
DETROW: That is alarming to hear. And we’ve talked about this a lot before. We know that several teens and young people have died by suicide after long interactions with these chatbots, right?
CHATTERJEE: That’s right. And in some instances, chatbots have given instructions for suicide to young people. They’ve isolated them from their human supports and even written their suicide notes. And, you know, AI companies face several lawsuits over these suicides.
DETROW: And so much of the attention has been on that problem, and rightly so. I’m curious, though, what are other things that researchers are worrying about as they learn more information about what’s going on?
CHATTERJEE: So, you know, one of the main reasons for this conference is that researchers don’t yet fully understand those impacts – right? – because the technology has evolved faster and spread faster than the pace of research. Here’s Prinstein again.
PRINSTEIN: This is an urgent situation. AI is changing the ways that kids are developing right before our eyes, and research is very slow. We’re trying to mobilize researchers from across 60 different institutions to agree on work that we need to do and to start doing it fast.
CHATTERJEE: And they want to go faster than they did with research on the impacts of social media.
DETROW: To that end, are there lessons from research so far for how chatbots might be affecting us?
CHATTERJEE: Well, we know from research, past studies on social media that kids are showing symptoms of social media addiction, and psychologists here are saying that chatbots are just the next step to what these big tech companies are doing. They have our attention already, and now they’re just exploiting the basic human need for attachment and bonding. Here’s psychologist Zak Stein, who founded this new coalition of experts meeting here this week.
ZAK STEIN: They figured out how to kind of break into the emotional centers and get someone deep into a committed emotional relationship with a machine. And of course, young people are more vulnerable.
CHATTERJEE: And Stein says that if, you know, people are already interacting with one another via text on our phones or computers, then it becomes easier to replace that with texting with machines, robots, essentially. And everyone here at this conference really wants to find a way to get a better handle on the impacts quickly before the harms become more widespread.
DETROW: That is NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee. Thank you so much for your reporting.
CHATTERJEE: You’re welcome, Scott.
DETROW: And if you or anyone you know is struggling or considering suicide, please text or call the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
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