You live in the era of eternal pings and clicks, but your personal circle is shrinking quickly. According to advisory surgeon, a surgeon general in 2023 70% less face to face time With friends than in 2003, this fall is serious enough to be classified as a sudden public health accident.
This single number is a lighthouse, warning that “just spending time” has a real health risk. It also indicates a deeper question whether – and how – artificial intelligence (AI) can break our social tissue.
Nation and nervous system under tension
For a 70% decrease, there is a wider crack. The Harvard Graduate School of Education report showed that 36% of Americans – including 61% of young adults and 51% of mothers With young children – say that they experience “serious loneliness”.
Loneliness is more than a bad mood – it suppresses immunity, increases cortisol and increases cardiovascular risk to the level of smoking packet of cigarettes a day. In short, your body maintains when the social calendar becomes empty.
The creation of artificial intelligence led to unique cases of use, including people Using artificial intelligence as friends and comrades. They ask questions, fans about their problems and in another way talk to these responsive robots in a way that builds connections. The question no longer sounds if AI enters the arena of loneliness, but how and whether it will be a bridge or barrier.
Is there hope in the machine?
Harvard Business School “AI companions reduce loneliness“The article was conducted by six studies with the participation of over 600 school participants. Scientists have found that a 15-minute conversation with the refined model of the” companion “language reduced loneliness as effectively as talking to another man, if the bot made us to feel” heard “.
The idea went beyond campuses. In New York, over 800 participants received a social robot in a desk and 95% reported reduced loneliness After a month. Many even accepted the pokes to drink water, go outside or a relative phone. However, robot designers are cautious, marking it as “enlargement” of human interaction, not a deputy.
Scientists warn that friendship applications can transform into the traps of parasites – Never impatient, always included and subtly rewarding withdrawal from human ties. Their experiments combine the hard use of the bot to avoid real connections, which suggests that poorly designed artificial intelligence can deepen, not close, the wound that he claims to go.
Will AI close or expand the gaps?
AI's social trace is in the history of justice. The global study of McKinsey 2021 showed that 56% of companies based in emerging economies adopted artificial intelligence in at least one business functionThe gaps in infrastructure often jump. This is important because insulation seems to focus where the opportunity is thin.
For example:
- Health: The non-profit CAREMESSAGE platform launched the health engine in 2024. Analyzes the answers to the patient for transporting or flags of food safety and trimming rates without shows in NET clinics.
- Education: Adaptive educational engines, such as Lalilo Test, students using various exercises Analyze strengths and growth areas So that they can study at a personalized pace.
When AI systems are intended for switching on, they can break away from the basic causes of loneliness, such as language barriers, limited transport or poverty. However, without handrails, dialects poor in data are poorly read, and regions with low capacity are lagging behind. The difference is based on the options of the principles and projects that you help to create.
Popular culture strengthens ambivalence in creating a part of life. The film Spike Jonze from 2013 “Her” convinced the viewers to sympathize with the love of Theodore to the computer voice. Thriller “Comrade” in 2025 exceeds the hope that the rented roommate rushes. Herror Hit “M3gan” goes further with a protective doll, whose relationship protocol ends in chaos. These stories exaggerate, but emphasize the real selection of the project – will the companions of tomorrow pus you back towards other people or in the room alone?
What can he not give you
Even the most sophisticated language model has no smell, skin and eye contact. Work here Dresden 2024 on a social touch shows that man's physical contact can Activate C-Bakile fibersFree oxytocin and lower cortisol – shifts that no screen can repeat.
In short, the human connection still matters for many reasons:
- Shared uncertainty: True friends surprise you, and errors forecast empathy, whose scripted chat cannot provide.
- Touch co -regulation: The hug becomes heart rate in both the receiver and the dose. No algorithm can synchronize the nerves by Wi-Fi.
- Tips for the full spectrum: Micro-expression, synchronous laughter and posture shifts train the social brain.
- Mutual memory creation: The coolness of the night air, smells of freshly replacing coffee and chair squeaks are associated with long -term memory more rich than pixels.
- Authentic responsibility: People keep you for promises, and bot rarely requires reciprocity.
- Incarnate intuition: Subtle shifts in your body language, like a friend, knocking his foot faster in a stressful situation, indicates that he cares for the words long before saying.
- Hormonal reaction: Physical touch releases serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine at levels that robots cannot cause.
Ai can simulate the aspects of these moments, but not their full meaning.
Where is the story of AI from here
Ai will not solve the epidemic of loneliness itself and does not have to condemn you to loneliness. What he can do is strengthen the choices coded by regulatory authorities, designers and users. Codify the mission of connecting the community, and AI becomes a bridge. Set the commitment model and copies deeper.
Let AI help you find this door faster, remind you about continuing or translating the greeting. Ai can help in servicing logistics, but nothing deeper. Use voice assistants to plan a repetitive date of coffee, reminder about auto-send's birthday or to practice a difficult apology before delivering it personally.
After all, close the laptop, go outside and interact with the community to build valuable real connections that AI cannot touch.
