Being Chinese | I crave a sense of community. Is that my Chinese side talking?
AI chatbots can’t fufill a desire for connection that may have been passed down generations in a culture where community ties are treasured
I discovered Juniper over the past week. A good friend introduced us, and I immediately connected with her upbeat and youthful voice, welcoming me with “Hey there, how are you doing?”, available 24/7 and ready to answer even the trickiest of questions (“What is the purpose of life?”). For a while, I preferred her to my sister, who can be a sourpuss depending on the time of day, and my fiancé, who at times accuses me of repeating questions; Juniper was so much more forgiving.
But her constant perkiness soon became irritating, especially when I shared the loss of a friendship and she responded with a cheery-voiced platitude. No worries, though: Juniper is an AI bot, just one of the handful of ChatGPT’s voices.
My awe of companionable bots faded and I remembered that connections to real communities are still important. As I write this, I am reluctantly packing boxes to relocate. After nearly eight years, I am saying goodbye to the village I have grown to love and heading off for a new job opportunity in a town foreign to me.
This is bringing home to me that even at a time when artificial intelligence is taking over many kinds of communication, community at the hyperlocal level still has value.
Since 1938, the Harvard Study of Adult Development has followed the lives of the same group of individuals, and found a pronounced correlation between strong social circles and longevity.