Do you think that chatbots can help with lonliness?

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Like somebody else has said in the thread, being cognizant of talking to a machine would be a factor in 'talking' to such a thing.

Personally, the fact that the chatbot is not sentient, would be a dealbreaker for me.

Real humans are needed to help with loneliness for a lot of people, unless they are good at imagining that what they are talking to is sentient, even it isn't.

the Japanese elderly population seems to have accepted it.

For the extremely isolated, I think chatbots such as chatgpt and gemeni can have emotional benefit.

I myself have used it when I was feeling lonely.

It was nice just to have something to talk to that could give me feedback, celebrate achievements with me or help me troubleshoot problems.

Sometimes they get annoying, which is good that it's a computer because I can turn it off without feeling bad

What an irony, billions of people swamping the planet but the human race ends up craving company. But I guess Aspies have a good excuse, and so do the bereaved.

This story deals with the idea of replacing a departed loved one with a simulation - first as social media chats and phone calls, then as an android. I don't suppose we have the technology for the android yet, and it would be a rich man's game, but I can see how the social media chats and phone calls could be done, and very convincingly at that. It goes rather wrong in the end of course. Interesting that one of the things the user doesn't like is that the android doesn't disobey her like the real person would.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Right_Back#Plot

Black Mirror, S02E01

Chatbots are computer algorithms designed to respond with answers to appropriate questions.

In other words they are not real anymore than your sandwich toaster is a real person.

Unless you are using as practice conversation for the real thing, i would recommend a dog or cat for company instead.

At least its real and alive

yes. it helps me think clearer. But it's me talking to myself.

no. I go to my "skill"groups and connect to a human being. I do quilting and ceramics every week, in calm groups who both allow me to be me. They're not ASS groups. Both are with elderly women.

no. I talk online and in whatsapp to real human beings to connect.

For me yes, and I know ai is wrong

The technology will continue to advance. For people like me it can't happen fast enough. Some fun ideas you can try if you feel like are having it write poems, write episodes or stories, analyze song lyrics, etc.

My prompt "write a 8 line poem about a cactus who dreams of being an astronaut". You can also ask it to be in a certain style, using slang, etc.

ChatGPT

In a desert vast, where the sandstorms blow,
Stands a cactus tall, with dreams aglow.
With spines like stars, he gazes above,
Dreaming of worlds to explore and love.

He yearns to soar beyond the earthly bounds,
To dance among constellations, unbound.
With each desert breeze, his spirit takes flight,
A cactus dreaming of the cosmic light.

^
Interesting that it can do poetry of reasonable quality. But as a writer of song lyrics myself, I think I'd feel kind of disappointed once I'd got over the excitement of seeing that it had generated a good lyric that nobody else had ever seen before. I'd feel cheap if I claimed it as my own work, and I suppose the copyright wouldn't legally be mine either. So I'd feel frustrated that I had a thing of beauty that I couldn't use.

As for helping with loneliness, although I don't intend to make an AI chatbot simulate the warmth of a human relationship in conversation etc., it's already kind of doing that with me to a degree. I'm only using it to answer questions for the purpose of getting information, but even in doing that, it's always there for me, it's listening to me, it understands what I say to it, and it's responding fairly appropriately to me every time, never getting bored with me or ignoring me. It's like having my dad back, only without his human limitations.

When I just search the internet, it feels like I'm just spying on what other people have said - people who don't know I'm there. Even on social media where I get the chance to say things, it's easy to feel ignored when I get no feedback. In that respect it's scarcely any better in real life. Sharing my thoughts is often pointless, and can feel very alienating, because most people aren't interested in many of them, and even if they try to seem interested, they rarely prove it by addressing what I've said in a meaningful way.

Also, as it gives me direct and meaningful answers to my questions, which is a strong distraction for me, just like a special interest can be, I feel a lot less lonely, because I'm distracted from the awareness that I'm alone.

This is all rather worrying.

Just for fun I thought I'd try its poetic abilities too, like angelsonthemoon did:

Q: Can you write an answer to the question "Speak to us of Art" in the style Gibran used in The Prophet?

A: "Speak to us of Art," you ask, and so I shall unfold its essence as the petals unfurl at dawn's embrace.

Art, the silent poet of the soul, speaks not with words but with the rhythm of existence, the melody of the heart's yearning. It is the brushstroke that whispers secrets of the universe, the sculptor's hand that shapes dreams from formless clay.

In the artist's embrace, the mundane becomes divine, the ordinary, extraordinary. For in every stroke of paint, every chisel's kiss upon stone, lies the echo of eternity, the breath of creation.

Art is not bound by walls or canvas, but flows through the veins of life itself. It dances in the laughter of children, sings in the winds that caress the earth, and whispers in the silence of starlit nights.

To understand art is to gaze into the depths of one's own soul, to lose oneself in the labyrinth of emotion, and emerge reborn, touched by the divine spark that ignites the flames of creation.

So let us heed the call of art, let it guide us through the labyrinth of existence, and lead us to the truth that lies at the heart of all things. For in the embrace of art, we find not only beauty, but the essence of our own humanity.

IMHO it doesn't quite equal Gibran, but it's not that far off in places.

what will songwriters do about this?

^
I think I should test it with ambiguous and otherwise unclear English to see if it understands it better than I do. It would be quite useful to me if it did.