Security News > 2024 > January > Chatbots and Human Conversation

As chatbots become a ubiquitous element of modern life and permeate many of our human-computer interactions, they have the potential to subtly reshape how we think about both computers and our fellow human beings.

Chatbots are growing only more common, and there is reason to believe they will become ever more intimate parts of our lives.

More generally, chatbots will likely become the interface through which we interact with all sorts of computerized processes-an AI that responds to our style of language, every nuance of emotion, even tone of voice.

The other direction these chatbots may take us is even more disturbing: into a world where our conversations with them result in our treating our fellow human beings with the apathy, disrespect, and incivility we more typically show machines.

Today's chatbots perform best when instructed with a level of precision that would be appallingly rude in human conversation, stripped of any conversational pleasantries that the model could misinterpret: "Draft a 250-word paragraph in my typical writing style, detailing three examples to support the following point and cite your sources." Not even the most detached corporate CEO would likely talk this way to their assistant, but it's common with chatbots.

If chatbots truly become the dominant daily conversation partner for some people, there is an acute risk that these users will adopt a lexicon of AI commands even when talking to other humans.

News URL

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/chatbots-and-human-conversation.html