A new study published in Communications Psychology suggests that artificial intelligence systems can be more effective than humans at establishing emotional closeness during deep conversations, provided the human participant believes the AI is a real person. The findings indicate that while individuals can form social bonds with AI, knowing the partner is a machine reduces the feeling of connection.
Deceptive AI interactions can feel more deep and genuine than actual human conversations
Misa and I have android tablets with the current free version of Gemini AI. We know it is a machine but sometimes it surprises us in how well it can communicate. We use it quite a bit for discussing about anything you can think of and somehow it can have a discussion about it.
It makes a lot of mistakes, and we don't believe what it purports but it is integrating with humans faster than I thought it would.
This is a topic that I find fascinating because it gets into the psychology of values we place on things merely because we have assigned that certain value, regardless of the content. In a world where AI can now hold long, fluid and meaningful conversations, it can be very rewarding, informative, and stimulating to the mind to converse with.
In the Turing Test, it isn't measuring IQ, or any benchmark. It is simply asking: Can a machine use language so convincingly that a human can’t tell whether they’re talking to a machine or a person? AI has now become quite convincing, and it can be very difficult to determine with sophisticated LLM's. However, if we discover that it was, in fact, an AI, then it's value may be reduced.
To me, it's like possessing a diamond or a Van Gogh painting for 20 years and assigning it great value, and then discovering it isn't genuine. It is still the same painting or stone you enjoyed having, but the perception has changed.
To be clear here, I am under no illusion that an AI is a real entity or even has an IQ as we would define it, but it draws on massive amounts of information, connects ideas instantly, explains things clearly, stays focused on my line of thought, and never get tired, distracted, or defensive. If I were qualified to assign it an IQ, it would be in excess of 150. I am beyond impressed. Is it correct 100% of the time; no, but neither is any other human on earth. Nevertheless, it has more knowledge and better reasoning abilities than anyone I've ever met.
It's not intended to have a real relationship with, and it has no feelings, so I think an emotional closeness and a bond is simply an illusion (As one might have with Data on Star Trek NG). To me, the question becomes: If the AI isn’t a person, can the interaction still feel real? And does that “realness” count for something? The experience is grounded in the mind by perception and expectation. An interaction can be quite enjoyable and rewarding whether it's an AI or a person. If I enjoy listening to a song, and I find out later it was created by an AI, I really don't care (But that's just me).
