The world is suffering from an unprecedented crisis of loneliness. In 2023, the America Surgeon General declared that loneliness was a national health crisis at the epidemic scale. His point was that social isolation, being lonely, causes a host of heath problems.
America is not unique in this regard. Many other first-world countries suffer from similar scourges. For example, in South Korea, the elderly are extremely lonely and have a high suicide rate due to this.
As a way to fix this issue, AI powered robot dolls are being given out to the elderly to keep them company. Many of the Korean elders are treating these dolls like grandchildren, cooking for them and cuddling them “to sleep.” With the rise of readily available AI chat interfaces, many young people are finding “friendship” in their AI programs.
People claim that AI tools, chats, and robots can substitute for “real” or human interaction. They claim that these technologies can fix loneliness. Many of us are extremely doubtful and highly suspicious of this use of technology and are certain that they can’t fix our loneliness. As it turns out, St. Thomas Aquinas gives us clear principles which explain precisely why AI can never replace or substitute for human interaction—and why AI is radically incapable of fixing our loneliness.
Aquinas addresses the topic of loneliness (he calls it “being alone”) when discussing the Trinity. He discusses questions about whether God is alone—which He is not, for God is a trinity of Persons. He also discusses how we can speak properly about God and the Trinity—can we properly say “the Father alone is God?” Within these discussions, Aquinas, always the careful thinker, defines what it means by being alone. He says, “Solitude is not removed by association with anything that is extraneous in nature” (Summa Theologiae I, q. 31, a. 3, ad 1). What does he mean?
To explain this, Aquinas gives the example of someone in a garden. They are the only person in the garden, so they are alone. But there is actually a lot of life in the garden. There are many plants and animals in the garden (think of the Garden of Eden). But the person is alone there (Adam was alone in Eden before Eve was created). This shows us that for loneliness to be overcome, we need to be around someone of the same nature as us—we need another human person to overcome loneliness. Aquinas uses this principle, that loneliness is only removed or overcome when we are united to another who shares our nature, to show that God is not alone, because the saints and angels are not what prevents God from being lonely; it is due to the fact that God is a Trinity of Persons.
For us and our purposes, the conclusion should be clear. For us humans to overcome our human loneliness, we need humans. Plants and animals are not sufficient companions for us. They weren’t enough for Adam; they won’t be enough for us. This is the case because they are different from us—they do not share our nature.
AI is even worse. AI is not a living thing at all—it is a fancy computer program (granted a very fancy program). Even if we have the very best AI, and many AI “friends” or robots which can “talk” with us, we will still be alone. AI is not a cure for loneliness because it does not share our human nature.
Photo by Sieuwert Otterloo on Unsplash
