Matters of Life & Death: AI sentience 2: I-Thou relationships, talking to stuffed animals, thanking Alexa, and Turing red flag laws

Building on last week’s discussion of AI chatbots, we consider the theology and sociology of why interacting with other human beings is so central to our personhood. But would it matter if we did enter into a counselling or caring relationship with a robot or AI software, if we felt it helped our loneliness or anxiety? How can we be raising young people, who cannot remember a world before smart speakers and digital assistants, to engage well and honestly with the AI all around them? And might there be a role for regulation to hem in the ambitions of the overmighty tech giants in this space?