One signal

Shirleene Robinson argues in a Guardian essay that AI’s cultural cost may reach beyond writing: people could lose the habit of listening to one another. She points to a study reporting that Australians spoke an average of 338 fewer words each day in 2019 than in 2005.

Why it matters

That decline predates today’s chatbots, so it does not show that AI caused people to talk less. Robinson’s argument is that tools promising quick answers and “empathetic” listening deserve scrutiny if they start to crowd out conversation. The useful question is not whether a chatbot sounds attentive, but what happens to the conversations it replaces.

Discuss: If an AI companion makes someone feel heard, should that count as a worthwhile substitute for conversation with another person?

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