Sherry Turkle’s lecture on Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk To Machinesexamines the growing integration of human-like AI chatbots into social and emotional life. Drawing on research on human–computer relationships, Turkle explores how the use of AI systems as companions, confidants, and sources of emotional support may shape expectations of empathy, attachment, intimacy, and care. She introduces the concept of “artificial intimacy” to describe relationships in which technologies simulate relational capacities without possessing the reciprocal experience underlying human relationships. Turkle raises questions about how sustained engagement with these systems may influence interpersonal development, including the capacity to tolerate uncertainty, navigate conflict, and sustain reciprocal human connection.

Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT. She has done pathbreaking work in exploring the “subjective side” of our relationship with technology, especially computers. Her works include The Second Self, Life on the Screen, Alone Together, Reclaiming Conversation, and Simulation and Its Discontents. Her most recent book, is Artificial Intimacy, If social media came after our attention, chatbots come after our capacity for attachment. Turkle is a recipient of Rockefeller and Guggenheim awards, a

Harvard Centennial Award, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

1) Describe the developmental arc of artificial intimacy

2) Recognize the holding power of relational artificats

3) Discuss social media as a gateway drug for chatbots

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.