The emerging field of social-emotional AI is tackling the same professions once thought to be reserved for humans – professions that rely on emotional connections, such as therapists, teachers and coaches. Artificial intelligence is now widely used in education and other human services. Vedantu$1 billion Indian online tutoring platform uses artificial intelligence to analyze student engagement, while a Finnish company has created “Ania Advisor”, a chatbot that engages with over 60,000 students, asking how they are doing, offering lend a hand and directing them to appropriate services. Startup from Berlin klar&ja offers an AI audio-bot therapist it calls “your 24/7 mental health ally” while you’re in the UK, Limbic has a chatbot called “Limbic Care” that it calls a “friendly therapy companion.”
The question is who will be the recipients of such automation? While the affluent are sometimes early adopters of technology, they also know the value of human attention. One spring day before the pandemic, I visited an experimental school in Silicon Valley where, like a wave of other schools seeking to “disrupt” conventional education, children were using computer programs to deliver tailored lessons in a wide range of subjects, from reading to math. . There, students learn mainly from apps, but they are not completely alone. As the limitations of automated education have become clear, the fee-paying school has devoted more and more time to adults since its founding a few years ago. Now children spend their entire mornings learning from computer applications such as Quill AND Tinkerand then move on to miniature, small-group lessons on specific concepts taught by a human teacher. Every week they also have 45-minute individual meetings with “advisors” who monitor their progress, but also take care of their emotional bond.
We know that good relationships lead to better outcomes in medicine, counseling and education. Human care and attention lend a hand people feel “seen,” and this sense of recognition underlies health and well-being, as well as valuable social goods such as trust and belonging. For example, one UK study titled “Is efficiency overrated?” – found that people who talked to their barista had greater wellness benefits than those who walked past them. Scientists have found that people feel more socially connected when they have deeper conversations and reveal more during interactions.
However, budgetary austerity and the drive to cut labor costs have overburdened many employees who are now tasked with making interpersonal connections, thus reducing the time they must devote to being fully present with students and patients. This contributed to what I call the crisis of depersonalization, or the feeling of widespread alienation and loneliness. U.S. government investigators found that “over half of primary care physicians report feeling stressed due to time pressure and other working conditions” As one pediatrician told me, “I don’t invite people to open up because I don’t have time. You know, everyone deserves all the time they need, and it would really help people have that time, but it’s not cost-effective.
The emergence of personal trainers, personal chefs, personal investment advisors and other personal service workers – as one economist put it “work of wealth”-shows how the wealthy are solving this problem, making personal service to the wealthy one of the fastest growing professions. But what opportunities do less privileged people have?
For some, the answer is artificial intelligence. Engineers who have designed virtual nurses or AI therapists have often told me that their technology is “better than nothing,” especially useful for low-income people who cannot, for example, attract the attention of busy nurses at community clinics or who cannot afford therapy . And it’s difficult to disagree with this, since we live in – as economist John Kenneth Galbraith put it – “Private prosperity and public misery“