A few months ago, I broke up with my boyfriend. I told close friends but otherwise kept the news to myself. Or so I thought. Scrolling through Instagram in bed, between stand-up comedy and cooking videos I saw an advertisement for an A.I. companion. “Late-night whispers” was written across his chest while he soaked in a bubble bath. Did Instagram know I was single?
Tech companies have found a way to market digital goods to lonely people, promising relief through connection, but this kind of connection isn’t the solution; it’s the problem. Calling loneliness an epidemic transforms a feeling into a pathology to be cured, creating a loneliness economy. Reframing a universal human experience like loneliness as a medical diagnosis creates a market opportunity to manufacture, sell and buy treatment. The prescription given for loneliness is connection, and Big Tech has found a way to seize the vulnerability of lonely people eager to escape their predicament.
Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, argues that A.I. companions can help fill what he sees as a friendship gap. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, is developing an A.I. “companion” that will live with users and, the company claims, be capable of sensing their surroundings. Replika, a generative A.I. chatbot, touts customer claims like “I love my human-like A.I. companion” and “Replika understands me better than any real guy ever did.” “Friends come and go, but GalaxyAI has your back,” another ad reads. Social media, dating apps and A.I. companions won’t alleviate loneliness; they will make it worse by giving people a way to avoid their aloneness.
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