Auto-generated description: A conversational voice demo interface displays two sections labeled Maya and Miles, each with a phone icon.

I spent a little bit of time this morning with Sesame, a demo conversational AI service. I’m fascinated by these, both from a technology point of view but also thinking about the societal viewpoint as these AI services and voices get closer to mimicking human conversations.

In many ways, the future outlined in the movie Her is already here.

Like many, I’m unsure about the long term effects of this movement. On one hand, many are genuinely losing the art of conversation in a screen dominated world. Among many other scenarios, conversational AI may provide an output for connection that some people may struggle with.

However, it’s that emotional connection that makes it also a concern.

As I was talking this morning to a voice named Maya, I could imagine how the barrier of “I’m talking to a machine” can quickly dissipate and give way to an emotional connection, like you really are talking to a human.

This brings up many concerns; not only psychological, but also the privacy and sensitivity of such personal conversations being managed through private companies with motivations not aligned with our basic human needs.

But whatever I think about this is overridden by the knowledge that these conversational AI’s are already in use; likely far more frequently than many of us may realise.

And despite this, somehow my natural position is to see this as a good thing for those who truly could use these. In a world increasingly fractured and disconnected despite unprecedented worldwide technical connectivity, is any form of emotional connection and outlet automatically a bad thing despite the risks?