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(The Indian Express has launched a new series of articles for UPSC aspirants written by seasoned writers and scholars on issues and concepts spanning History, Polity, International Relations, Art, Culture and Heritage, Environment, Geography, Science and Technology, and so on. Read and reflect with subject experts and boost your chance of cracking the much-coveted UPSC CSE. In the following article, Reema Ahmad, a Mental Space Psychologist, analyses the growing reliance of humans on AI for emotional support.)
As a practicing counselor, one of the things that has always made me worry or think about my clients is how extremely lonely a lot of them say they are. They reach out to me to share milestones, discuss relationship issues and seek advice on life challenges. But often there’s that one or more client who reaches out simply because they feel they don’t have a safe space to talk about their feelings or someone to listen to them without judgement.
Despite the fact that in this day and age where everyone is hyper-connected and technologically occupied, for a lot of people, there’s very little time or desire to just be present for each other. It’s hardly surprising then to come across news articles and social media posts that discuss the rapidly growing dependence of human beings on artificial intelligence (AI)-powered companions, friends and mental health services.
Consider Replika, your ‘always there AI friend’ that is ‘ready to talk and support you’ and also to help you create ‘your AI partner’. Or ElliQ, a voice-activated AI robot designed specifically to combat loneliness in older adults by providing companionship through conversations, prompts and reminders. Then there’s Woebot, the cute little AI chatbot that promises to help you manage anxiety, stress and negative thought patterns by using a combination of exercises, modules and conversation largely based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) principles.
If you’re seeking more than automated, clipped responses that follow user-led questions, there’s the more sophisticated AI tool called Xiaoice, ‘known for its ability to engage in deep and meaningful conversations’ that displays human-like high emotional intelligence. If you’re in the mood for a lighter, mood lifting experience, you can choose Anki Vector, a small robot that uses AI to recognise faces, express emotions and interact with its environment. Cousins and offspring of the humble ChatGPT, it seems like these AI tools are all set to replace human connection and support.
The scripts of movies like Her and Ex Machina, where characters interact, form romantic relationships and are moved deeply by AI companions, no longer seem fabricated or far-fetched when we look at the sheer number of people using AI today. From the startling Siri that would go off in our pockets through our phones a few years ago to Snapchat’s My AI, these services are no longer niche and are rapidly becoming mainstream.
Replika has an estimated 25 million users, Xiaoice has over 660 million users, and Woebot has been downloaded by over two million users since it was introduced. Whether it is AI companies creating these robots or mental health services struggling with tremendous load and scarcity of trained human providers or doomsayers that predict the downfall of humanity at the hands of overpowering AI, the fact that this phenomenon is real has been established beyond doubt. We may not be in danger of elimination or need rescuing by AI, but the fact that it is here to stay cannot be ignored.
But historically, traditional midwives, apothecaries, soothsayers, medicine folk, astrologers, priests across all religions and communities and even the early 20th century family clinics played a central role in meeting people’s physical, spiritual and mental health needs. Human beings largely relied on individuals, who they had known throughout their lives and had close ties with, for care and counsel.
In fact, for a lot of early, mediaeval and modern human history, it was hard to distinguish between physiological and other categories of healers with common factors being physical proximity to patients and a deep knowledge of their ancestry and roots. To treat someone was to know where they came from, how they lived and what influenced them so well that trust was implicit in the healing process.
If we examine mental health alone, from time immemorial, talking, sharing stories around fires, and seeking advice from clan, community and family elders were the ways people sought solutions to moral dilemmas and difficult choices. Mental health care history does have murky periods where mentally ill individuals were considered to be either demonically possessed recipients of divine wrath or delinquents unfit for society.
From ostracism to incarceration and ill-treatment in mental asylums, patients were often treated inhumanely. That said direct human assessment, response and care, be it misguided or otherwise, remained a cornerstone of mental health care throughout. How have we then reached a time when human beings are increasingly relying on human-developed robotic software for emotional support and guidance? And how is it becoming so popular?
To answer the first question, we need to deep dive into human community evolution over thousands of years. For the sake of simplicity, our evolution from small, tightly knit communities based on similar or same racial, ethnic and religious factors to rapidly shifting dynamic groups with ease of travel and movement induced a change in how groups interacted with and depended on each other.
With transport came the possibility of separation from birthplace and biological kin and that in turn loosened traditional ties of reliance. Further down evolution, the institutionalisation of medical care that catered to a large number of diverse people in one place made segregation of services that required specialists necessary. With the advent of modern psychiatry, our understanding of mental health underwent drastic change where specific therapies, medication and processes were constantly experimented with to understand the human mind.
In essence, that was the beginning of mental health evolving as a unique industry that trained specialists in the treatment of various disorders. With the advent of big pharmaceuticals, the mental health industry as one of the key dispensers of relief from previously untreatable conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorders became increasingly sought after. Mental health as a distinct part of well-being, no longer limited to and by the care of family and community, became a service that requires payment, thereby limiting its accessibility to those with resources. As community spaces shrank, mental health care became a luxury that many couldn’t and still cannot afford.
This was the gap that digitisation and the advent of the internet filled rapidly in a matter of two or three decades post the 1990s. Tele-therapy, finding online support groups (which were some of the earliest mental health services online) was now a choice open to those who preferred anonymity or had limited access to care providers.
With rapid digitisation, the availability of personal computers and then smartphones, accessible mental health through the internet, mobile applications and platforms marked a turning point in mental healthcare. Anyone, anywhere could now access tools and specialists without the painful waiting period and expense of in-person therapy. And with tech companies benefitting from rapid digital dependency, AI began to enter and develop this area of human-digital interaction.
What we are witnessing now is an era of unprecedented AI-human interaction with increased reliance on AI-based mental health apps and services. The sheer impact of the pandemic, forced isolation and no access to social activities has further changed this interaction into dependency. When usual pathways of communication shut down, AI accessed that gap and became the next best thing to a friend – one that is always available and often free or inexpensive. This combined with the burgeoning global mental health crisis and insufficient trained practitioners to meet this demand has further elevated AI-based mental health care.
As people lean into more closed ways of living with family structures and work environments losing personal interaction, AI has become the bridge between humans and their innate need to be seen, heard and witnessed. Furthermore, AI’s proficiency in analysing massive amounts of data, replication of human thought and language patterns has also made it an efficient tool for mental health services and research. It may just be possible that AI could one day predict breakdowns, suicidal ideation, and high-risk behaviour in people before they occur by using gene, thought pattern and behaviour mapping in combination with apps that also monitor physiological signs like heart rate and blood pressure.
Does that make AI a possible replacement for human mental health care providers? Does the democratisation of access, no longer constrained by affordability or availability, make AI the sensible next step in evolving mental health systems? Can we as humans deeply entrenched in context and nuance give ourselves a clear answer?
We shall discuss this and more in part two of this segment.
With millions of users relying on AI chatbots, are we witnessing the rise of a new form of emotional dependence on machines?
How close are we to the scenarios portrayed in movies like Her and Ex Machina, where humans form deep bonds with AI?
What societal changes have led people to turn to AI-based tools for emotional support rather than human companions?
How did the emergence of big pharmaceuticals influence the accessibility and affordability of mental health care? How did online support groups and tele-therapy democratise access to mental health care?
Is the rise of AI mental health apps a reflection of convenience, or a symptom of the breakdown of community and family-based support systems?
(Reema Ahmad is a trauma counselor, author and mental space psychologist.)
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