Now that we’re at the point many of us rely on AI for daily human-like interaction, life coaching and advice, it occurred to me that an unintended positive consequence of this may be that AI could eventually make us nicer.
When we interact with each other online, we seem not to be able to resist the temptation to become hugely irrational, explosive and inflammatory in a way that would be wildly inappropriate in the physical world, but is apparently an accepted feature of digital ‘social’ communication.
AI on the other hand is a hyper-rational prediction engine with an infinite capacity for dispassionate kindness and none of the preprogrammed triggers and trauma that humans ineptly force onto the unsuspecting avatars of others.
Conversations with e.g. Claude AI are polite, personable and expertly structured to create the illusion of being heard, held and understood. This has the defusing effect of making us progressively more reasonable because our invariably counterproductive fight or flight responses are expertly handled and reframed in a way that makes us feel capable, empowered and supported as we navigate challenging human interactions.
In short, I would argue we are being progressively trained in how to understand ourselves better and communicate more effectively with others. If this subtle yet consistent training eventually makes its way into the toxic world of social media, imagine how much more collaborative we would feel towards each other as we moved through the political and cultural complexities of our late stage capitalist societies.
Digital Becca 