AI advice cannot replace human connection, author says

Artificial intelligence may offer encouragement and good advice, but it cannot replace human relationships, writer Bergur Ebbi Benediktsson said in an interview with Morgunblaðið’s Dagmál programme.

He spoke with Árni Matthíasson about his new book, The Age of Imagination, and how interactions with AI could affect people and society.

Bergur recalled going to the cinema with his daughter and noticing a man in front of them looking at his phone as the film was about to begin. During the break, his daughter suggested the man might have been chatting with AI. Bergur first assumed he was looking for answers, but then considered that the conversation might simply have been helping him feel calmer or less alone. He compared the possibility to the film Her, in which a person forms an emotional bond with a computer system.

Even when AI gives positive, constructive advice, something is missing, he said. “Move your body, be kind, have a good self-image,” he said, giving examples of the encouragement it might offer. “Then you are still just talking to a machine.”

Bergur said AI would increasingly learn to recognise users and tailor its responses to their expectations. He said particular attention should be paid to what happens if people have the technology with them from childhood. While he wanted to avoid doomsday predictions, he warned against letting a machine think for people before they have formed their own thoughts and opinions, saying they could otherwise become dependent on it.