The Future Normal · Part 1
Virtual Companionship
What if you could develop a meaningful relationship with an app or a robot?
What if you could develop a meaningful relationship with an app or a robot?
The Trend
Chatbots, robots and virtual influencers are moving from novelty to a genuine source of emotional support, particularly where human care is scarce or stigmatized. Some are already built to watch for signs of depression and respond at hours when no human is available. In the future normal, a growing range of virtual companions will offer meaningful, empathetic support and become beloved additions to many people’s lives.
The Instigator
A cognitive behavioral therapy chatbot created by Alison Darcy, a former Stanford clinical research psychologist who understood that demand for mental health services has always outstripped the supply of trained professionals. Built to be radically accessible, the app has provided care free since 2017, with or without a diagnosis, at three in the morning when no therapist is taking appointments. The pandemic made the gap impossible to ignore, with 40 percent of US adults reporting mental health or substance abuse struggles by mid-2020 and waits for an appointment stretching into months.
Imagining The Future Normal
How will we navigate the ethics of designing for emotional connection?
There have been multiple cases where virtual relationships may have led to tragic real-world outcomes. In the future, companies will need to establish ethical boundaries, or be compelled by regulation to act. Given features like 24/7 availability and never-ending empathetic responses end up deepening dependency among users, this will be extremely difficult.
Will the virtual companionship market split into two?
Entertainment-focused companions like Character.ai emphasize fun and diversion, while automated mental health apps are being tested by the medical community to improve patient outcomes. Over time, this divide between fun-based uses versus therapeutic ones will create two very different virtual companionship industries.
How will AI companions raise new questions about human connection?
Rather than replacing human connections, might AI companions help us appreciate the very human qualities that can’t be simulated or become bridges to deeper human-to-human connections? The future will likely not present a black and white choice between these two realities, but an often murky gray blend of them both.
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