Part of the hysteria around AI can be contributed to those in leadership positions, like Bill Gates and Elon Musk- the latter even contributing $10 million dollars to research for ‘how to keep machine intelligence under control.’ One Swedish philosopher, Nick Bostrom, goes so far as to paint hypothetical pictures where a certain machine, say a paper-clip-making machine, becomes so ‘obsessed’ with making paper clips that it starts turning everything into paper clips, including humans. The question remains how, exactly, that would be possible and if it will ever be possible. On the other hand, there is a level of comfort that comes with the knowledge that it is still nearly impossible for self-driving cars to interpret certain traffic signs, signals, etc. from other drivers and pedestrians and that while they may be able to self-drive, they are still a far cry from a human’s level of observation (Achenbach).
Due to COVID-19, many lives were changed and people’s mental health started to decline rapidly. Therapeutic robots started acting as automated therapists for those in need of help- however, this can have negative consequences. For example, most people form (to some degree) a personal relationship with their therapist- however, this can be troublesome when people expect a robot to respond how a human would and are hurt when it doesn’t. Or, are hurt when it doesn’t show human behavior at all, and so they feel as if they were ‘deceived.’ This is related to professor Sherry Turkle’s theory that human therapists, being human, are inclined to ‘push back,’ as she states it. ‘Pushing back’ involves an utterly human response, such as conveying concern and accepting vulnerabilities. That requires empathy and imagination, along with other human attributes, that an automated therapist would not have. This leads us to ask questions: will AI pull our own social connections apart until we prefer the company of robots over humans? Will it play a role not in improving mental health, but rather, in pulling it down (Chong)?
Possibly the best (fictional) therapeutic robot example comes from this SNL comedic play on the Amazon Echo. In this video, it is expressed how robots can respond to questions with live data and recognize any mistakes and/or misjudgments.