The rich can afford personal care, the rest must be handled by AI

The social-emotional developing field AI: engages in the very things that people once thought were reserved for humans; jobs that rely on emotional connections, such as therapists, teachers, and coaches.AI is now widely used in education and other human services. VedantuAn Indian web-based tutoring platform valued at $1 billion uses artificial intelligence to analyze student engagement, while a Finnish company has created “Anne’s advisor“, a chatbot that works with over 60,000 students, asks how they’re doing, offers help and directs them to services. Berlin-based startup find me too offers an AI audio bot therapist, which it calls “your 24/7 mental health ally”, while in the UK, Limbic has Limbic Care, a chatbot it calls a “friendly therapy companion.”

The question is, who will be in favor of such automation? While the wealthy are sometimes the first adopters of technology, they also know the value of human attention. tried to “disrupt” conventional education, children used computer programs tailored for lessons in many subjects, from reading to math. . There, students learn mostly from apps, but they are not completely independent. As the limitations of automated education became clear, this fee-based school added more and more time with adults several years ago. Now, children spend all morning learning from computer programs. such as Quill and: Butterflythen move on to short, small group classes for specific concepts taught by a human teacher. They also have 45-minute weekly one-on-one meetings with “mentors” who monitor their progress but also make sure to connect emotionally.

We know that good relationships lead to better outcomes in medicine, counseling, and education. Human care and attention help people feel “seen,” and that feeling of recognition underlies health and well-being, as well as valuable social goods such as trust and For example, one study in the United Kingdom, “Is efficiency overrated?– found that people who talked to their barista experienced more well-being benefits than those who were right next to them.Researchers found that people felt more socially connected when they had deeper conversations and discover more during their relationship.

However, fiscal austerity and the drive to reduce labor costs have burdened many workers who are now charged with making interpersonal connections, reducing the time they can be fully present with students and patients.This has contributed to what I call a crisis of depersonalization, a pervasive sense of alienation and loneliness : US government researchers found that “More than half of primary care physicians report feeling stressed due to time pressures and other work conditionsAs a pediatrician told me. “I don’t invite people to open up because I don’t have time. You know, everyone deserves as much time as they need, and it would really help people to have that time, but it’s not profitable.”

The rise of personal trainers, personal chefs, personal investment advisors and other personal service workers, what one economist called “wealth work” shows how the wealthy are fixing this problem, making personal care one of the fastest-growing occupations for the wealthy.But what are the options for the less advantaged?

For some, the answer is AI. Engineers who have designed virtual nurses or AI therapists have often told me that their technology is “better than nothing,” especially useful for low-income people who can’t afford for example, the attention of nurses employed in community clinics, or who cannot afford therapy; And it’s hard to disagree when we’re living in what economist John Kenneth Galbraith calls.private prosperity and public poverty“.