Don’t turn a blind AI to others’ troubles

CAN you recall the last time you confided in a friend or family member about your worries and anxiety?

Did it lift the emotional weight off your shoulders or amplify your concern instead, leaving you feeling judged?

The complexities of modern life, compounded by our increasing use of social media, have placed tremendous strain on our mental health.

Being connected round the clock only adds more pressure, forcing us to maintain a certain image at all times.

But what if there’s an outlet where we could express our feelings freely without fear of being judged?

Around the world, people are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) as a source of emotional support.

Ease of access and lower costs compared to traditional therapy are often cited as reasons for its appeal.

Naturally, this trend has sparked concern.

Mental health experts warn that AI does not understand emotions as it is simply a language processing tool that churns out what users want to hear.

Critics argue that AI lacks the nuance to navigate the complexities of human psychology.

But beneath that concern lies more trouble – people have come to feel more comfortable sharing their innermost thoughts with a soulless machine than with other humans.

The real issue is not that AI is becoming more human, but it may have become better at being human than humans.

Has AI become better at modelling empathy, patience and compassion than we are? This is a question worth asking.

That challenges us to reevaluate how we support and connect with each other in times of emotional distress.

Listening before providing advice to someone in distress is what AI does. — Filepic

Recently, I confided in a friend about a personal issue that was weighing on me.

I was halfway through explaining it when this person cut me off, seemingly impatient to offer comments before hearing the full story.

Worse, the comment came across as insensitive and its tone laced with judgement, something which an AI chatbot would never do.

As a language processing tool, AI is designed to reflect the tone of the prompt given, thus making the user feel more at ease when interacting with it.

It may offer similar advice, but it would do so in a seemingly more understanding manner that does not seek to downplay your worries.

Some may call it sugarcoating, but when emotions are fragile, a gentler tone can work wonders in getting the message across.

Humans – though thankfully not all of them – on the other hand, tend to be blunt.

“Oh, it’s not that serious.”

“You’re overthinking this. Get a grip.”

We’ve all heard responses like these, or even said them ourselves, thinking they would help.

But more often than not, they miss the mark. At best, they come off as dismissive; at worst, they make someone feel like their feelings don’t matter.

We do this because we are wired to recognise patterns in human behaviours, because this is how we make sense of the world.

However, in doing so, we often oversimplify complex emotional experiences, assigning them to convenient causes and offering quick fixes.

It saves us the cognitive effort of fully engaging, and does little to help the person who’s hurting.

An AI chatbot will never tell you to “suck it up” or just “move on”.

It has limitless patience to deal with your emotional pain, so long as the device you are using it on remains powered.

It listens, it responds and, best of all, it offers comfort and reassurance when the users need those the most.

In a way, it sets the bar for what it means to be human and how we can uplift each other in times of need.

To be clear, I am not encouraging people to use AI for emotional support, but I am suggesting we learn something from it in terms of how we should treat each other.

So the next time someone shares his or her deepest worries and you feel tempted to reply with “Relax, it’s not that serious”, pause and ponder.

What if it is that serious?