““Human connection is valuable,” said Munmun De Choudhury, a professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. “But when people don’t have that, if they’re able to form parasocial connections with a machine, it can be better than not having any connection at all.””
““What, if at all, have you, your friends, and people your age used genAI for?” Over half of our 27 interviewees spontaneously named experimenting with AI characters specifically, unprompted. Interviewees were keenly aware that AI companions “were a thing”, with many naming either direct personal experimentation with sites like Character AI or by “hacking” ChatGPT […]
“I have proposed, in these pages, that the best moment when using virtual reality is when you take the headset off and perceive the world with fresh eyes. Maybe falling in love with A.I. and having A.I. yanked away will be how people learn to appreciate one another in the future.”
“With AI systems designed specifically to foster trust and emotional connection, users lower their natural defenses, creating a perfect storm where the most private aspects of human experience become commodified data points. Unlike previous technologies that merely tracked behaviors, these AI relationships extract emotional patterns, decision-making tendencies, and value systems—precisely the information needed to influence […]
““Human connection is valuable,” said Munmun De Choudhury, a professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. “But when people don’t have that, if they’re able to form parasocial connections with a machine, it can be better than not having any connection at all.””
“Therapy and Companionship is now the number 1 use case. This use case refers to two distinct but related use cases. Therapy involves structured support and guidance to process psychological challenges, while companionship encompasses ongoing social and emotional connection, sometimes with a romantic dimension. I grouped these together last year and this year because both fulfill […]
““What, if at all, have you, your friends, and people your age used genAI for?” Over half of our 27 interviewees spontaneously named experimenting with AI characters specifically, unprompted. Interviewees were keenly aware that AI companions “were a thing”, with many naming either direct personal experimentation with sites like Character AI or by “hacking” ChatGPT […]
“It’s part of a growing market of A.I. products that promise users an experience that closely approximates the impossible: communicating and even “reuniting” with the deceased. Some of the representations — like those offered by HereAfter AI and StoryFile, which also frames its services as being of historical value — can be programmed with the […]
“I have proposed, in these pages, that the best moment when using virtual reality is when you take the headset off and perceive the world with fresh eyes. Maybe falling in love with A.I. and having A.I. yanked away will be how people learn to appreciate one another in the future.”
Every week I send out articles I encounter from around the web. Subject matter ranges from hard knowledge about teaching to research about creativity and cognitive science to stories from other industries that, by analogy, inform what we do as educators. This breadth helps us see our work in new ways.
Readers include teachers, school leaders, university overseers, conference organizers, think tank workers, startup founders, nonprofit leaders, and people who are simply interested in what’s happening in education. They say it helps them keep tabs on what matters most in the conversation surrounding schools, teaching, learning, and more.