As research by OpenAI and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has shown, the wider use of chatbots will inevitably have negative consequences for users. We tell you the details.
As research by OpenAI and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has shown, the wider use of chatbots will inevitably have negative consequences for users. We tell you the details.
OpenAI study finds link between ChatGPT use and loneliness, The Japan Times reports. According to a new study by OpenAI in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, more active use of chatbots such as ChatGPT may correlate with a persistent feeling of loneliness and less time spent communicating with other people.
Those who spoke to ChatGPT daily tended to report higher levels of emotional dependence on the chatbot and problems with its use, as well as increased levels of loneliness, according to a study published Friday. The findings were drawn from two studies conducted by scientists at two organizations and have not been peer-reviewed.
As developers like OpenAI release more sophisticated models and voice features that allow them to better mimic the ways humans communicate, there are likely to be more opportunities to form parasocial relationships with these chatbots.
To conduct the study, the researchers followed nearly 1,000 people for a month. The participants had a wide range of prior experience with ChatGPT and were randomly assigned to use the text-only version of the app or one of two different voice versions for at least five minutes a day. Some were asked to have unlimited chats about anything, while others were asked to have personal or impersonal conversations with the service.
The researchers found that people who tend to be emotionally attached to human relationships and trust chatbots more were more likely to feel lonely and more emotionally dependent on ChatGPT. The researchers said they did not find that a more attractive voice led to a more negative outcome.
In the second study, the researchers used software to analyze 3 million user conversations with ChatGPT, and also surveyed people about how they interacted with the chatbot. They found that very few people actually use ChatGPT for emotional conversations.
The research is still in its early stages, and it remains unclear to what extent chatbots can make people feel lonelier, and to what extent chatbots can exacerbate these feelings in people who are already prone to feelings of loneliness and emotional dependency.
Katie Meng-ging Fang, a co-author of the study and a graduate student at MIT, said the researchers cautioned that people shouldn’t use the findings to conclude that increased chatbot use will necessarily have negative consequences for users. The study didn’t take into account the amount of time people used chatbots, she said, and didn’t compare them to a control group that didn’t use chatbots.
The researchers hope the work will lead to new research on how humans interact with artificial intelligence. «Focusing on AI itself is interesting,» says Pat Pataranutaporn, a co-author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). «But what’s really important, especially as AI is deployed at scale, is understanding its impact on humans.»
