Emerging Areas of Social-Emotional aye is tackling jobs that people used to think were reserved for humans – jobs that depend on emotional connections, like therapists, teachers, and coaches. AI is now widely used in education and other human services. VedantuAn Indian web-based tuition platform, valued at $1 billion, uses AI to analyze student engagement, while a Finnish company has “Annie Advisor,'' a chatbot is working with more than 60,000 students, asking how they're doing, offering help and directing them to services. Berlin based startup claire and me While in the UK it offers Therapist, an AI audio bot that it calls “your 24/7 mental health companion.” limbic There's a chatbot called “Limbic Care” that he calls a “friendly therapy companion.”
The question is, who will benefit from such automation? While affluent people are sometimes the first to adopt technology, they also know the value of human attention. In the spring, the day before the pandemic, I visited an experimental school in Silicon Valley, where — like a wave of other schools that were trying to “disrupt” traditional education — kids learned everything from reading to math. Used computer programs for customized lessons in many subjects. , There, students learn mainly from apps, but they do not learn completely on their own. As the limitations of automated learning became apparent, this fee-based school has spent more and more time connecting with adults since its inception a few years ago. Now, children spend all morning learning computer applications such as flex And tinkerThen move into concise, small group lessons for specific concepts taught by a human teacher. They also have weekly 45-minute individual meetings with “mentors” who keep track of their progress, but also make sure to connect emotionally.
We know that good relationships lead to better outcomes in therapy, counseling and education. Human care and attention helps people feel “seen”, and this feeling of recognition forms the basis of health and well-being as well as valuable social goods such as trust and belonging. For example, a study in the United Kingdom—titled “Is efficiency overrated?”—found that people who talked to their barista had greater wellness benefits than people who came to them. Researchers have found that people feel more socially connected when they have deeper conversations and disclose more during their conversations.
Yet the drive to cut fiscal austerity and labor costs has placed a burden on many workers, who are now charged with managing interpersonal relationships, reducing time to be fully present with students and patients. This has contributed to what I call depersonalization crisis, widespread alienation and feelings of loneliness. US government researchers found that “More than half of primary care physicians feel stressed due to time pressure and other work conditionsAs one pediatrician told me: “I don't invite people to speak openly because I don't have time. You know, everybody needs as much time as they need, and that's the thing that would really help people is to have that time, but it's not profitable.
The rise of personal trainers, personal chefs, private investment advisors, and other personal service personnel – what one economist described as “money work”—shows how rich people are solving this problem, making personal service one of the fastest growing businesses for the rich. But what are the options for the less privileged?
For some, the answer is AI. Engineers designing virtual nurses or AI therapists often told me that their technology was “better than nothing,” especially useful for low-income people who, for example, could not get the attention of busy nurses in community clinics. Can, or who are not able to afford it. Treatment. And it's hard to disagree when we live in what economist John Kenneth Galbraith called the situation.private prosperity and public squalor,