From ChatGPT to Replika, AI is being touted as a tool to solve the loneliness epidemic. But is this just a false marketing promise, or perhaps something more sinister. In these habitually lonely times wanting someone to talk to, even if they’re just an AI chat bot, is understandable. But besides the emptiness of a conversation with an AI, author of Nihilism and Technology, Nolen Gertz, argues that even the most optimistic story of connection could lead to danger.

There is something disturbing and yet understandable about wanting to talk to a machine.