Akihiko Kondo / Twitter
Akihiko Kondo with his fiancee, Hatsune Miku
It is estimated that around 3,700 people have requested marriage certificates to the very popular Hatsune Miku. Not extreme polygamy: Hatsune is a hologram
Can technology really replace human relationships? In a recent, e Philosophy researchers at North-West University dedicated to human happiness and artificial intelligence have tackled this question.
In this work, the two researchers analyzed the rise of AI companions, chatbots and social robots used for friendship, counseling, emotional support and even romantic relationships.
e argue that AI can reduce loneliness and provide assistance, but lacks genuine understandinga, the emotions and moral responsibility necessary for human flourishing.
A True happiness depends on interpersonal connections authentic, but AI is disrupt traditional ideas of friendship and relationships. Replacing them with AI-mediated interactions risks weakening well-being and community life.
O Studying happiness is a vast field. In your study, e turn to the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur to analyze a dimension of happiness linked to authentic human relationships, friendships and community building.
Ricoeur had particular influence in the field of human capabilities and in the way people understand themselves, others and the world. It contributed to deepening our understanding of happiness by connecting it to unhappiness and chance, but also by underlining the relational nature of human happiness. Your reflection is based on three interconnected ideas about the meaning of happiness.
In the first place, happiness reflects individual desire of a fulfilled life and capacity for personal action. But Ricoeur warns that human beings exist within complex social systemswhich shape and limit your pursuit of happiness. Therefore, we cannot easily guarantee happiness through individual effort alone. This leads to the second idea.
Secondly, happiness is no longer a private aspiration and begins to emerge from the gift and reciprocity. Its fragility lies precisely in its shared characterwhich creates friendships capable of warding off loneliness and deepening personal fulfillment. But this doesn’t just concern the ties we maintain with those close to us.
Ricoeur adds a third dimension, which includes those who are far away of us. It argues that happiness is linked to the private aspirations of each individual and the role that others play in enabling or frustrating them. These “others” include both those who have a face — friends and loved ones — like distant, faceless strangers.
A Happiness, therefore, can be found in the individual himselfin intimate relationships or in relationships with the broader community.
Ricoeur’s reading of the concept of happiness reflects a well-known fact, according to which strong community ties help people live longer, happier lives.
The study is based on nearly 80 years of data collected from the life experiences of 268 students who, in 1938, moved from Harvard residence halls to residential housing.
It shows that close relationships are the best indicator of longevity, health and satisfaction with life. These bonds protect against discontent and delay physical and cognitive decline. They are more reliable indicators of well-being and happiness than wealth or social status.
However, the rise of digitalization and AI is now complicating the issue of who, or what, can count as “other” in promoting our individual happiness.
Robotic technology
According to one on how the AI-enabled company develops, 68% of AI chatbot users see these tools as “somewhat” or “completely” similar to humans90% believe that chatbots are intelligent, 78% find them empathetic and 75% believe they have conscience.
AI is being used to answer questions and explore interests human beings, shaping a new type of dialogue in many areas of life. With it, ideas of friendship are changing, starting to include relationships between humans and technology.
Traditionallythe “others” in a person’s life were human subjects. Emerging research into the relationships between humans and technology challenges this assumption. From sports companions to sexual intimacythese studies force us to reconsider what counts as other.
Technologies like this today occupy the role of “other” in some people’s lives. Its companion chatbots, whose motto is “the AI friend to live life with you,” have more than 42 million users worldwide at the time of writing.
Replika is designed to promote company and friendship among people who feel lonely. Users create an avatar that becomes theirs.
Socially disruptive technologieslike AI social robots, are creations that distort our traditional social normsour relationships and the way we see the world.
One of the reasons why they are considered disruptive is the fact that they are unpredictable and continually challenge our worldview. Historically, technologies were not moral agents. Today, however, they play the role of moral subjects and objects in our lives.
In Japan, for example, the , a state of social seclusionis gaining strength, with more than 1.5 million people to create links with virtual companions instead of interacting with other people.
It is estimated that around 3,700 people have requested marriage certificates with the popular Hatsune Mikua hologram of .
Akihiko Kondoa 42-year-old Japanese man, — becoming an emblematic figure in the fight for recognition of , a condition characterized by romantic attraction to fictional characters.
In some religious contexts, social robots serve as spiritual leaders to communities of believers. These technologies have disrupted traditional concepts like friendship and relationships, as well as the idea of what it means to contribute to human well-being and flourishing.
So can robots bring real happiness?
In your study, e recognize that these technologies can promote human flourishing and happinessbut not from the perspective of Ricoeur’s “others”.
These technologies do not meet the criteria that allow us to recognize a true human “other” in them, because:
- just imitate the experiences that we share with them;
- do not act of their own “will”and we cannot hold them responsible for any moral or legal act;
- They have no stories or experiences of their own.
Although they lack sentience—the ability to feel pain or pleasure—social robots can provoke emotional and psychological responses significant, improving human well-being and happiness in ways that resemble traditional human interactions.
AI-powered social bots are always available, full of energyare patient, adaptable and reactive to our needs. In this sense, it seems offer much more to our potential happinesswhat our best friends or family do.
However, are social bots and should continue to be seen as such. We must not confuse them withwhat the “other” humans meant for Ricoeur, nor with what they meant in the Harvard study.
This is because the experiences they provoke are not realand these technologies are not objects of moral consideration—they do not receive true care, justice, or compassion.
To be object of moral consideration is a necessary condition for promoting genuine human happiness and well-being, they conclude e
