Bad News Bots

New research from the University of South Australia shows that social chatbots in social networking platforms like Snapchat could be doing more harm than good for neurodiverse people, entrenching social isolation and reinforcing dysfunctional habits among many people with autism, anxiety and limited social skills. Lead researcher Andrew Franze says the rapid development of social chatbots has pros and cons which need investigating. “Young people with social deficiencies tend to gravitate towards companionship with online social chatbots in particular,” Franze says. “They offer a safe means of rehearsing social interaction with limited or no risk of negative judgement based on appearance or communication style. However, there is a risk they can become dependent on chatbots and withdraw even further from human interactions.”

Franze says the inability of chatbots to have a real ‘conversation’ or display empathy and soft emotional skills can reinforce dysfunctional habits in many neurodiverse people. “Some chatbots have a generally servile quality and so there is no resistance or opposing view that characterises human conversations. This means that users can control the conversation completely; they can pause it, delay it, or even terminate the conversation. All of this is counterproductive to developing appropriate social skills in the real world.” And while social chatbots may relieve social anxiety, this relief may develop into a form of dependency that negatively impacts actual relationships.