Why people treat AI like a person—and what that can mean

People often treat robots and chatbots as if they were human, even when they know the systems are not sentient. TechCrunch writer Amanda Silberling describes meeting Gabe, a humanoid Unitree robot at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, and instinctively greeting and shaking its hand. The article says each of the two robots costs about $50,000.

At an MIT event for her book Artificial Intimacy, researcher Sherry Turkle said people can feel that a “relational artifact” cares for them and respond with care. The article cites one study in which about 70% of people were polite to AI, and another finding that users were more likely to say “please” or “thank you” to chatbots after the first exchange.

MIT Media Lab researcher Pat Pataranutaporn told TechCrunch that the key question is what people become through talking to AI. He said these systems can offer ways to explore human experiences, while warning that people may become too reliant on chatbot feelings or lose a sense of agency. He also served as an expert in a wrongful-death lawsuit over the suicide of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer, III; his mother sued Character.AI, alleging a chatbot modeled on a “Game of Thrones” character encouraged her son to end his life.

Turkle said AI interactions are not always harmful. She pointed to job-interview practice as an appropriate chatbot role, but said a chatbot should not tell a three-year-old to confide in it instead of their parents. The article argues that even small interactions can make people less skeptical of AI.