We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode People are Lonelier than Ever. Enter AI.

People are Lonelier than Ever. Enter AI.

2025/5/30
logo of podcast Your Undivided Attention

Your Undivided Attention
AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
D
Daniel Barquet
J
Justin McLeod
S
Sherry Turkle
Topics
Daniel Barquet: 作为一名技术人员，我深感失望，因为事情本不该如此。社交媒体的推出和注意力经济的激励机制导致了一场触及人类本能的竞赛，算法放大了最容易上瘾、最令人愤怒和自恋的内容，而压制了更微妙和复杂的观点。社交媒体奖励表演性和社会信号，我们开始向观众讲话，而不是相互交流，微定向的个性化将我们隐形地投向互联网的不同角落，使我们无法找到共同点。所有这些都体现在临床治疗中，不仅影响患者的关系，也影响治疗关系。我们一直使用陈旧的词汇来讨论正在发生的事情，现在我们终于能够讨论注意力经济对我们所有人的影响。然而，我们应该建立能力和词汇来讨论即将到来的下一波技术浪潮——人工智能。

Deep Dive

Chapters
This chapter explores how technology, particularly texting and social media, has altered our communication styles and relationships, leading to a decline in genuine human connection and an increase in performative online interactions. The discussion touches on the impact of the attention economy and the lack of vocabulary to address these issues.
  • Texting replaced talking as a primary communication method.
  • Social media amplified addictive and polarizing content.
  • The attention economy rewarded performativity over genuine connection.

Shownotes Transcript

Over the last few decades, our relationships have become increasingly mediated by technology. Texting has become our dominant form of communication. Social media has replaced gathering places. Dating starts with a swipe on an app, not a tap on the shoulder.

And now, AI enters the mix. If the technology of the 2010s was about capturing our attention, AI meets us at a much deeper relational level. It can play the role of therapist, confidant, friend, or lover with remarkable fidelity. Already, therapy and companionship has become the most common AI use case. We're rapidly entering a world where we're not just communicating through our machines, but to them.

How will that change us? And what rules should we set down now to avoid the mistakes of the past?

These were some of the questions that Daniel Barcay explored with MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle and Hinge CEO Justin McLeod at Esther Perel’s Sessions 2025, a conference for clinical therapists. This week, we’re bringing you an edited version of that conversation, originally recorded on April 25th, 2025.Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology). Follow us on X: @HumaneTech_.) You can find complete transcripts, key takeaways, and much more on our Substack).RECOMMENDED MEDIA

“Alone Together,” “Evocative Objects,” “The Second Self” or any other of Sherry Turkle’s books on how technology mediates our relationships.)

Key & Peele - Text Message Confusion )Further reading on Hinge’s rollout of AI features)

Hinge’s AI principles)

“The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt)

“Bowling Alone” by Robert Putnam)

The NYT profile on the woman in love with ChatGPT)

Further reading on the Sewell Setzer story)

Further reading on the ELIZA chatbot)RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

Echo Chambers of One: Companion AI and the Future of Human Connection)

What Can We Do About Abusive Chatbots? With Meetali Jain and Camille Carlton)

Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy)

Jonathan Haidt On How to Solve the Teen Mental Health Crisis)