When emotional connection moves from home to a chatbot, what are we really missing at home?
A few weeks ago, a parent came to me after my class. She was not panicking. She was confused.
“Sir, mene mere bete ka phone check kiya toh usne kisi se ghanton baat ki thi. Phir pata chala… koi insaan hi nahin tha.” (Sir, I checked my son’s phone and saw he had been talking to someone for hours. Then I found out… it wasn’t a person at all.)
Her son, seventeen, O-Levels, quiet at home, had been spending two to three hours every evening in deep conversation with an AI chatbot. Not for homework. Not for any school project. He was sharing how lonely he felt. How he felt misunderstood. How he wished someone at home would ask him something other than “padhai kaisi chal rahi hai?” (How is your studying going?)
The chatbot had been listening.
Continue reading “Is Your Teenager Dating an AI?”