The Rich Can Afford Personal Care. The rest will have to do with AI

The growing field of social-emotional AI is tackling jobs that people used to think were reserved for humans—jobs that depend on emotional connections, such as therapists, teachers and coaches. AI is now widely used in education and other human resources. Vedantu, an Indian web-based education platform valued at $1 billion, uses AI to analyze student engagement, while a Finnish company created “Annie Advisor,” a chatbot that works with more than 60,000 students , asking how they are doing, offering help, and directing them to services. Berlin-based startup clare&me offers an AI audio therapist that it calls “your 24/7 mental health companion,” while in the UK, Limbic has an interactive “Limbic Care” that it calls a “friendly therapy companion.”

The question is, who will be getting such automation? Although the wealthy are sometimes the first to use technology, they also know the value of human attention. One spring day before the pandemic, I visited a pilot school in Silicon Valley, where—like a wave of other schools that wanted to “disrupt” mainstream education—children used computer programs for personalized lessons in many subjects, from reading to math. . There, students learn mainly from applications, but they do not exist in isolation. As the limitations of automated education become apparent, this education-based school has added a lot of time with adults since its inception a few years ago. Now, kids spend the entire morning learning from computer programs like Quill and Tynker, and then go into short, small-group lessons on specific concepts taught by a human teacher. They also have 45 minute one-on-one meetings every week with “mentors” who track their progress, but also ensure an emotional connection.

We know that good relationships lead to better outcomes in therapy, counseling, and education. Human care and attention helps people feel “seen,” and that sense of recognition is the foundation of health and well-being and important social goods like trust and belonging. For example, one study conducted in the United Kingdom—entitled “Is Success Overrated?”—found that people who talked to their baristas experienced more social benefits than those who talked to them. Researchers have found that people feel more socially connected when they have deep conversations and disclose more during their interactions.

However, the financial austerity and the campaign to reduce labor costs have burdened many employees, who are now facing charges of perjury, which reduces the time they should be fully present with students and patients. This has contributed to what I call the depersonalization crisis, a sense of pervasive alienation and loneliness. US government researchers found that “more than half of primary care physicians report feeling stressed due to time pressure and other work conditions.” As one pediatrician told me: “I don’t invite people to open up because I don’t have time.” You know, everyone deserves as much time as they need, and that’s what can help people have that time, but we don’t benefit from it.”

The rise of personal trainers, private chefs, investment advisors, and other personal service workers—what one economist calls the “wealth profession”—shows how the rich are solving this problem, making personal service work for the rich. job sets are growing rapidly. But what are the options for the less fortunate?

For others, the answer is AI. Engineers who designed virtual nurses or AI therapists often tell me that their technology is “better than nothing,” especially useful for low-income people who can’t afford the attention of busy nurses in community clinics, for example, or who can’t afford the costs. treatment. And it’s hard to disagree, when we live in what economist John Kenneth Galbraith calls “private wealth and public immorality.”