Nick Proferes

The Psychological Impact of Digital Isolation: How AI-Driven Social Interactions Shape Human Behavior and Mental Well-Being Felix Eling 3697-3705 Apr 30, 2025 Education The Psychological Impact of Digital Isolation: How AI-Driven Social Interactions Shape Human Behavior and Mental Well-Being Felix Eling Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, Gulu College of Health Sciences, Gulu City, Northern Uganda DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.90400265 Received: 13 March 2025; Revised: 22 March 2025; Accepted: 25 March 2025; Published: 30 April 2025 ABSTRACT The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in social interactions has transformed how humans experience companionship, communication, and mental well-being. This review examines the psychological impact of AI-driven social interactions, focusing on virtual assistants, AI chatbots, and digital companions. It explores the benefits, risks, and ethical concerns associated with AI companionship. A systematic review methodology was employed, detailing inclusion criteria, databases searched, and analysis techniques. Findings suggest that while AI can offer emotional relief and support, over-reliance may disrupt real-world social bonding. Ethical concerns such as data privacy, emotional manipulation, and regulatory gaps are highlighted. The study underscores the need for balanced AI integration in human socialization. The study also addresses gaps in previous literature by examining AI’s influence on different demographic groups and cultural contexts.

Let me tell you a story. Perhaps you can guess where this is going... though it does have a bit of a twist.

I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵

Better Images of AI We are a non-profit creating more realistic and inclusive images of artificial intelligence. Visit our growing repository available for anyone to use for free under CC licences, or just to use as insp...

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH.

Please please please please stop giving me news articles about blog posts about AI that include images of blue data and robot hands. betterimagesofai.org

i keep reading "it's giving tuesday" and reading it the wrong way.

And another gem from the summer: Nicholas Proferes @kelleyhas2es.bsky.social @kthorson.bsky.social @ankolika.bsky.social Chia-Fang Chang and Ava Francesca Battocchio write about the rhetoric of localism in platform content moderation. Read more here journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

A Researcher Made an AI That Completely Breaks the Online Surveys Scientists Rely On We can no longer trust that survey responses are coming from real people.”

We can no longer trust that survey responses are coming from real people.”

Roughly speaking those who work in connection with the [automatic computing engine] will be divided into its masters and its servants. Its masters will plan out instruction tables for it, thinking up deeper and deeper ways of using it...The masters are liable to get replaced because as soon as any technique becomes at all stereotyped it becomes possible to devise a system of instruction tables which will enable the electronic computer to do it for itself. It may happen however that the masters will refuse to do this. They may be unwilling to let their jobs be stolen from them in this way. In that case they would surround the whole of their work with mystery and make excuses, couched in well chosen gibberish, whenever any dangerous suggestions were made. — Alan Turing (1947) Lecture on the Automatic Computing Engine

Way back in 1947, Alan Turing had thoughts on how AI would influence the demand for skilled labor.

(via Matteo Pasquinelli 2023 _The Eye of the Master_)

We're hiring tenure-track Asst Prof Philosophy. Good people, great research and teaching. AOS applied ethics broadly construed. AOCs open. Teach bioethics, ethics of AI, undergrad, graduate certificate in Ethical Dimensions of AI, planned Masters Bioethics. philjobs.org/job/show/30245 #philsky

That Zuckerberg would be selling generative AI makes perfect sense. It is an isolating technology for an isolated time. His first products drove people apart, even as they promised to connect us. Now chatbots promise a solution. They seem to listen. They respond. The mind wants desperately to connect with a person—and fools itself into seeing one in a machine.

Worth reading:

"The Age of Anti-Social Media Is Here" by Damon Beres

www.theatlantic.com/...

#GenerativeAI

NEW: An analysis finds that NIH funding cuts have disrupted at least 383 clinical trials, affecting over 74,000 participants that were enrolled in studies that were testing treatments for conditions including cancer, heart disease and brain disease.

If you donate to your local food bank remember your employer might match your donations and double them. Every month I send $50 and they get $100

So baseball again in a few hours, right?

Do...do stadiums serve breakfast?

googling 'how do you win baseball'

lol game 4 is later today

Sisyphus would love this game.

OK so you know the gag on the Simpsons when Sideshow Bob is stepping on the rakes, it's funny, then it's too much, then it's terrible, then it's transcendently hilarious

this baseball game

RIP david lynch you would have loved a baseball stadium full of people slowly losing their minds

Sports people. Do you realize what time it is? Go to bed.

Sandy Koufax now making his way toward the Dodger bullpen

wow 12 innings of baseball that's almost ten miles on the 101

This game is like I got caught smoking a baseball and now I have to smoke a whole pack of baseball

'There Has To Be a Lot That We're Missing': Moderating AI-Generated Content on Reddit | Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Generative AI is altering how we work, learn, communicate, and participate in online communities. How might online communities be changed by generative AI? To start addressing this question, we focused on online community moderators' experiences with AI-...

🇳🇴 I'm in Bergen for #CSCW25 🇳🇴
This Wednesday, in the "Content Moderation" session, I'll present my paper about how Reddit moderators are grappling with AI-Generated Content. I'm honored that it received a Best Paper Honorable Mention 🤓 If you're here too, let's connect!
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/22f7afc3-8ac0-4ca1-9877-fd3f8ddcc986?desktop=true&segmentId=7c8f09b9-9b61-4fbb-9430-9208a9e233c8#myft:notification:daily-email:content Meta will use conversations people have with its chatbots to personalise advertising and content across its platforms, in a sign of how tech companies plan to make money from artificial intelligence. The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp on Wednesday said it would use the content of chats with its Meta AI to create advertising recommendations across its suite of apps. “People will already expect that their Meta AI interactions are being used for these personalisation purposes,” said Christy Harris, privacy and data policy manager at Meta.

What an unsurprising decision by corporations that desperately need to make money with AI. If every other company with a chatbot isn't already doing this, then expect them to be following Meta's lead soon. The chatbot is not your friend; it's a corporate listening device. www.ft.com/content/22f7...

Is AI actually a sound social investment? Or a net drain of value? Come to Edinburgh and help us @braiduk.bsky.social develop a more holistic and rigorous methodology for measuring AI’s real worth!

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this

AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.

Electricity now costs 267% more (!!) for 1 month vs. what it cost 5 years ago near data center hotspots. Awesome reporting from Josh Saul @dinabass.bsky.social Leonardo Nicoletti @naurtorious.bsky.social Demetrios Pogkas (gift link) www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

words have (different) meaning(s according to which discourse communities are deploying them and to what rhetorical purposes)!!!

AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI. One possible reason is because AI tools are being used to produce “workslop”—content that appea...

hbr.org/2025/09/ai-g...