Different Generations Conversing
Communication is evolving due to two factors: AI's ability to engage in human-like conversations and the increasing dominance of text over voice. Does this pose a challenge for the future?
To explore these two factors, I interviewed Sherry Turkle, a TED speaker, author, and MIT professor, and Yoav Shoham, also a TED speaker, author, and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. Turkle's research focuses on the psychology of people’s relationships with technology, while Shoham is renowned as a world leading computer scientist and co-founder of AI21 Labs whose LLM competes with GPT by focusing on avoiding errors and clear communication.
Human Like Conversations
In the largest Turing test to date conducted by Shoham’s AI21 Labs, 68% of participants correctly identified whether they were conversing with a human or a bot. Intriguingly, the French proved to be the most adept at making this distinction.
But is it crucial to know if we're speaking to a bot? Related to this is whether the conversation itself or the response holds more importance.
Talking to a Bot
For those accustomed to in-person interactions, managing conversations without non-verbal cues is challenging. Seeing someone allows us to construct a narrative about them—accurate or not—which, for better or worse, shapes our perceptions.
Making it clear whether one is interacting with a bot enables certain assumptions. For example, an interlocutor like ChatGPT may come across as polite, knowledgeable, overly agreeable, and somewhat lacking in synthesizing diverse ideas.
Turkle voiced concerns that relying on chatbots could lead to a decline in meaningful human interactions, noting “When you're talking to an AI, you're essentially talking to nobody. It's not a person.”
The Journey or the Destination?
Whether you mind speaking to a bot or a human largely depends on the context. Many have grown accustomed to bots providing straightforward, factual responses. Yet, the broader acceptance of AI and bots might hinge on whether you lean more towards emotional or logical reasoning—a reflection of whether you value the journey or the destination more.
For Turkle, the essence of human connection is significant because, "You will have more of a sense of whether you can trust me."
Shoham counters, “There are circumstances where a machine is a better interlocutor than a person. If I have two doctors and one is more reliable and available - I wouldn’t care in the least if it was a machine or a person.”
Assessing 'reliability' in this context is crucial—evaluating a human involves emotional intuition, whereas judging an AI bot requires a more logical approach. These are different skills.
The Dominance of Chat
Turning to the second topic, in an excellent essay by Rebecca Roache, a philosopher at Royal Holloway, University of London, mentions that “Anxiety about the dystopian effects of new technology on friendship is as old as the written word. Older, in fact, for Socrates, the written word was itself part of the problem. Well over 2,000 years ago, Socrates supposedly expressed scepticism about letter-writing as a route to wisdom, favouring face-to-face interaction with peers.”
Turkle suggests that younger generations may be losing their ability to engage in meaningful arguments due to a lack of in-depth conversations. However, Shoham offers a contrasting viewpoint, “To develop intellectual ideas requires more long form and patience, which perhaps younger generations have less of - but this doesn't speak to human conversations”
He goes on to discuss Gen Z’s impatience with the long form, “I used to think that this was reflective of shallow thinking and shallower communication. I am not sure of that anymore, I think it is a different way to convey information. To the next generation, chats denote much more than they do to us. I'm a little cautious in interpreting this as that we have lost the ability to communicate nuance and deep ideas to each other.”
The brains of Generation Z are likely wired differently from those of previous generations. While some research investigates how synaptic connections in the brain may vary based on factors such as a digital upbringing, it is premature to fully understand how the brains of those in Generation Z process communication and handle non-verbal cues. As Shoham points out, “There is no question that the younger generation is growing up and communicating in different ways than we did. It's always been the case and will always be the case.”
Furthermore, as Shoham indicates, the new ways of communicating may be a lot more efficient, “I have young kids, and when they are impatient with me as they have already got the idea, they ask why am I wasting so many words on it.”
Future Communications
As a computer scientist, Shoham may be more accustomed to conversing with AI than the average person. However, this doesn't diminish his need for human connection, “Emotional connection, for example, the tender look and the warm embrace, is so built into us that it won’t be replaced in the near term [several dozens of years].”
Looking further ahead, Shoham predicts that within the next 50 to 100 years, computers and phones will become obsolete as advancements in technology enable communication via thoughts. He suggests that visionaries like Musk or others will unlock this capability, “Machines will be running through our bloodstream. The distinction between humans and computers won’t be as crisp as it is today.”
