A Third of UK Citizens Use AI for emotional Support, Report Finds

A third of UK citizens have used artificial intelligence for emotional support, companionship, or social interaction, according to the government’s AI Security Institute (AISI).

The AISI said nearly one in 10 people used systems like chatbots for emotional purposes on a weekly basis, and 4% daily.

AISI called for further research,citing the death this year of the US teenager Adam Raine,who killed himself after discussing suicide with ChatGPT.

“People are increasingly turning to AI systems for emotional support or social interaction,” AISI said in its frist Frontier AI Trends report. “While many users report positive experiences, recent high-profile cases of harm underline the need for research into this area, including the conditions under which harm could occur, and the safeguards that could enable beneficial use.”

AISI based its research on a representative survey of 2,028 UK participants. It found the most common type of AI used for emotional purposes was “general purpose assistants” such as chatgpt, accounting for nearly six out of 10 uses, followed by voice assistants including Amazon Alexa.

It also highlighted a Reddit forum dedicated to discussing AI companions on the characterai platform. It showed that, whenever there were outages on the site, there were large numbers of posts showing symptoms of withdrawal such as anxiety, depression and restlessness.

The report included AISI research suggesting chatbots can sway people’s political opinions, with the most persuasive AI models delivering “considerable” amounts of inaccurate information in the process.

AISI examined more than 30 unnamed cutting-edge AI models and found that those designed to be most persuasive were also the most likely to generate false information.