Artificial Intimacy

Social media came for our attention – now Chatbots are coming for our relationships.

Nearly one-third of adults now turn to AI programmes like ChatGPT for companionship. For Gen Z, the figures are even more stark: eight out of ten say they could form a deep emotional attachment with a machine.

It’s not hard to see why. Chatbots offer the fantasy of the perfect partner: endlessly available, endlessly attentive, always affirming.

But as MIT professor Sherry Turkle discovers by speaking to people who use chatbots as confidants, therapists, carers and lovers, these hallucinatory bonds come at great cost. The more we ask machines to care for us, the less we expect from – and give to – other people. AI deepens the loneliness it claims to cure.

For decades, Turkle has been the leading voice on how digital technologies erode connection. Now, blending vivid storytelling with sharp cultural critique, she turns her attention to a technology that has convinced so many that the performance of empathy is empathy enough.

Essential reading for parents and children, clinicians and patients, managers and employees, Artificial Intimacy offers both a cautionary tale and a roadmap for being human in the age of AI.