You Have Bewitched Me, Keyboard and Screen

After a long day of droning lectures and the chaos of a bustling campus, it always feels nice to sit back and unwind by talking to somebody. For most people, this person is a roommate a door away, a significant other or even a call to family back home. For some, their day ends with a chat to a loved one who exists entirely in the digital world… an artificially intelligent chatbot.

With the rapid advancement of A.I. over the past few years, asking an A.I. chatbot for research help or for brainstorming ideas has become very common. Some of its more controversial uses have been to cheat on assignments or even generate artistic creations rather than hiring real creatives to do the work. While that type of usage is harmful enough, some people take the tool even further than its original purposes.

01101000 01100101 Loves Me … 01101000 01100101 Loves Me Not …

There have been multiple cases of people, particularly the younger generation, creating real connections with non-real entities. Even on TikTok, it’s become a common trend to confide secrets and intimate stories with ChatGPT, whether for reassurance or for advice. For a lot of young people in the digital age, artificially intelligent chatbots are becoming a step in for friends, therapists and even lovers. 

In the age of online dating and social media, most connections have already been moved to the internet. Even when linking with people we know in real life, online communication can often be more common than face to face conversation. Readily available and free to anyone with Wi-Fi access, A.I. Chatbots can be an oasis in the desert of the present day loneliness epidemic. With an instant response time, forever trained to please and no chance of being ghosted, ChatGPT can be a more stable connection than any Tinder match or fair-weathered friend ever could be.

So why not go completely digital?

On the surface, having heart-to-hearts or… heart-to-motherboards … with a chatbot can seem mostly harmless, but there are many real world repercussions to their constant usage. Big tech companies like Meta have been draining sources of water from small towns to cool the computers needed to power their A.I. services. There has also been a popular trend of teenagers using character.ai to talk to their favorite fictional characters, which in the most extreme circumstances has been caught up in a case of suicide.

In the situation of using chatbots in place of therapy, some people online have even speculated that A.I. fueled psychosis could become a modern day epidemic if people aren’t careful with their usage. As a chatbot can’t read your body language and your tone like a trained professional can, it can only respond in a way that is positively affirming. While some harsh truths from friends or family may be hard to hear, sometimes it’s needed to not feed into fanciful delusions. Without a dose of reality, some people may end up like the case of this woman on TikTok using a chatbot to feed her fantasy of the one sided love she has for her psychiatrist.

Human connection and love in the age of the internet is hard. Loneliness is the most common plague in college, even more so than the freshman flu. Despite this, opening yourself up to the small chance of rejection for the possibility of a genuine connection is always worth it. Additionally, for anyone struggling and looking for someone to talk to, Penn State offers psychological services for any and all students in need.

In these uncertain and trying times, always remember to hold your loved ones near and leave the screen behind for another time.

Let us know what you think about A.I. and its uses by finding us on X, @VALLEYmag,

Related