Can AI make good companions? [Video]

SALT LAKE CITY — We hear so much about AI lately, like how it will take our jobs, do all of our chores, write our emails. But can it be a companion to us? Can it help with our loneliness epidemic?

“This is technology trying to fix a problem that technology created,” said Josh Redfern, Market Director for Behavioral Health for CommonSpirit in Utah. “A lot of our use of our phones is for non-communication now. It’s just consumption of media. Things like Instagram reels. We turn to them instead of reaching out to other people, and then we say we don’t feel connected. We feel lonely.”

The positives of AI companions

AI companions could be good if people use it as a tool and not as a substitute for human interaction.

“AI could be used in teaching us how to communicate with each other, how to have relationships,” Redfern explained.

But he worries that it would become yet another …