Social Impact of AI: Opportunities and Risks
As artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots and virtual agents become part of everyday life — from customer service and healthcare to personal companionship – a critical question arises: How do these AI interactions affect social and emotional dynamics?
In his recently published framework, Professor Benjamin Becker from the Department of Psychology at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) explains that the human brains are naturally wired for social interaction through evolutionary and experience shaped behaviours and brain systems that help individuals to understand others, build trust, and form social bonds. Because of this, people tend to treat AI chatbots and avatars like social beings (agents), attributing them with personality, feelings, and intentions – a tendency called anthropomorphism.
As AI becomes more advanced and personalised, these interactions will increasingly engage neural mechanisms more deeply and may even change how the brains function in social contexts.
This presents exciting opportunities, but also potential risks.
Opportunities:
- Reducing Loneliness: AI companions could provide comfort, social support, and improve mental health for those feeling isolated.
- Improving Learning and Therapy: AI could enhance education and therapy by using social processes to boost outcomes.
Risks:
- Altering Human Sociality: Prolonged AI interactions might change how the brains work and handle real human relationships.
- Amplifying Bias and Misinformation: AI could unintentionally reinforce feedback loops, shaping perception and behaviour, influencing our views without our awareness.
- Exploiting Social Bonds: Some AI designs might exploit social bonding mechanisms to increase user engagement, sometimes in ways that are not always in users' best interests.
The implications are especially significant for young people, whose social skills and identities are still developing while growing up with AI.
Professor Becker's work calls on researchers, developers, and society to anticipate and guide this transformation, ensuring AI benefits us ethically and safely. "Understanding how our social brain shapes interactions with AI and how AI interactions shape our social brains will be key to making sure these technologies support us – not harm us," Professor Becker said.
This study was recently published in Neuron, in an article entitled "Will our social brain inherently shape and be shaped by interactions with AI?".
Link to the paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627325003460
