AI for Companionship?

Within our introduction post I emphasized the importance of having a sounding board. If you had a chance to read Greg's post about who you should consider for one, he lists mentors, coaches, and advisors. What doesn't he list? AI.

The use cases for AI are evolving by the day. However, allow me to draw a line in the sand with our position: Eels will never recommend AI for companionship, relationships, friendship, a sounding board or anything that goes beyond using a tool to accomplish a task.

AI is incredible. I willfully ignored it while working on my MBA at UConn because I didn't want the temptation. Since, I've absolutely used it and am actively experimenting with ways it can enhance our website and improve user experience. However, I picked up on a pattern I found interesting while working with it.

My first introduction to AI being used the way Mark Zuckerberg is explaining here was when someone told me they used ChatGPT to practice for a tough conversation with their boss. The practice? An hours long car ride while they travelled for work. They described it as "awesome" and concluded with, "who else do you have to talk to about work?" (a human sounding board).

Back to the pattern. I noticed while working with it that if I countered a response or asked a question challenging an answer, they would respond with "that's a great point" or "that's exactly how you should be thinking about this" and would update its response to match my position. That's a problem. The last thing a person needs when discussing real life problems is an echo chamber that simply adjusts to your position. Now, are there prompts that could have improved the responses? Yes, probably. Could you kick off a conversation ensuring the machine is 100% truthful and brutally honest with how it responds? I'm sure. However, typing that last sentence alone felt absolutely ridiculous and not how humans should be living their lives.

You're free to interact with a machine all you want. But it will never substitute for tone, nuance, or what happens in the room when you put what you've practiced to the test and the heart begins to race while fight or flight kicks in. If you need someone to talk to, find a human.

P.S. I'm right on average with the number of friends. But 15? Who has time or energy for 15?!