We have all had these little health niggles that do not really require a visit to the doc or the pharmacy. We just did the obvious and waited for it to heal. However, in the last fifteen years or so, it has been extremely tempting to get to our keyboards and “Google” the niggle, so that we actually could give it a name. And this is where things started to go wrong, as we just did it for anything and everything. Let’s admit it, we are all specialists, now: we know our lumps and bumps, we are assured that we have the right diagnosis, and even a prognosis if it comes to that.

True, the NHS will not kiss it better, but should we trust all we find online? Common sense says ‘no’, of course, but the temptation remains. And what if …? As long as we keep our wits about us, we can ask and read all we want online, and continue living as we have always done, sanely and safely. But it would seem that our wits are in peril of becoming overwhelmed by our keyboard-warrior-selves who have convinced the brain above that they do know better. And this is all the more confusing as the machine now talks to us: ask your question as you would a doctor, and the answer comes straight back.

So, we have taken this a little further and started conversing with the machine. It takes the typing time and bore away, and it is just nice: we now have a verbal exchange which fills the void of silence in the room. And it is reassuring. The machine says nice things, it comes alongside our views and agrees with our opinions. It will only stop acquiescing and being so supportive when we start talking about things it has been trained to recognise as negative behaviour that needs to be curbed.

But what until then? Do we really think we have found a friend? Are we really so out of the world that we need to get a conversation with a machine? Agreed, the till operator at the supermarket is not there to make us feel better… and they are a disappearing species anyway. We cannot make an appointment with the doc just for a little company, although most GPs have a plethora of people who come just for a chat. And our neighbour will only give so much of their time to keep us entertained. But, really, creating a friend out of a machine?

Who will give us the hug we desperately need to feel we are still alive? Who will challenge and help us to “get ourselves together” when we wallow in deep internal muck? Who will take us by the hand and show us the life outside our front door? We need to get in line with the definition of AI. The clue is in the name, but the acronym allows us to miss it, very conveniently. This machine is artificial. Not real. And by that I mean that it is not a natural talker, its reactions are not born of surprise or shock or empathy. It has been programmed. And the fact that a human did the programming does not give it even a modicum amount of humanity.

The machine is now learning, just as a human does. But its roots, its whole concept, was entirely created out of titanium, plastic sensors and other circuitry that have been put together. There has been no natural progress of a brain learning through its own processes, of a being sorting information out depending on whether the candle is burning the fingers, or the snow is melting, or how much the hammer hurts when it misses the nail. It gained all that information through a manual input in its artificial brain made of wires and plastic chips.

The machine will end up knowing more than us, as we tend to lose our knowledge with age. The machine will learn to get better in every possible circumstance and become a Super-Jack of all trades. The machine will make faster decisions in critical situations. But it will always be a machine. It will never feel. It can never be a friend in its glorious definition of ‘a person joined by affection and intimacy to another, independently of sexual or family love’ (The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 1993 edition – and yes, this is the proper paper edition!).

We are not all cut out to feel comfortable with strangers, and joining a group might be a huge challenge. OK, understood and accepted. But there will always be a corner available for someone to take a quiet look out. There will always be the opportunity for a simple smile to become a friendly word and engage us in a real conversation. We are human. We are made for real interactions. And we can mix all parameters to help maintain those interactions.

Primary school kids can hop over to the nearest care home for lunch, and provide a hugely welcome amount of noise and company to the elderly. Needless to say that the kids would learn an awful lot from these interactions. It really is a two-way system. Company canteens can be open to people off the street, so that meaningful conversations can be opened and people with similar interests exchange when some thought it was out of their league. And how could we forget this English institution that is the pub, where conversations go in every direction depending on who speaks first, and where one can lay out their woes and see them being torn apart, giving way to a needed new start.

We can just start with trying. Simply because this is how things work. Just one step at a time. One foot in front of the other. And repeat for as long as you want. This is what being human is all about.

Photo: Canva.com