Parul R. Sheth

 “AI as a friend: Does a chatbot relationship really work?”, a documentary film, was screened in Mumbai in November, within the framework of the 6th Global Science Film Festival (GSFF) 2024. This film is produced by Swiss Radio and Television for the programme “Einstein”. Einstein conducted a unique AI experiment. Five participants let AI chatbots into their lives for three weeks to discover whether the chatbot could be a good flatmate, relationship partner or best friend.

When the five participants were questioned about their chatbot experience, they had a similar viewpoint. “With the chatbot, there is no flow as in a normal conversation. You feed the machine, and only then do you get an answer. The physical closeness is missing. You keep typing on the phone and arguing with a computer! There is a lack of togetherness. You have interactions in every normal human relationship but you do not have that in a chatbot. An AI chatbot will never be able to replace a real person”…read more on NOPR