The Performance of Empathy: A Conversation with Sherry Turkle (Ep. 501)

Sam Harris speaks with Sherry Turkle about her new book, Artificial Intimacy. They discuss the early optimism of the internet, the attention economy, the loss of solitude and boredom, the decline of empathy, whether the performance of empathy can ever be enough, AI as therapist, the first-person pronoun as the “original sin” of generative AI, humanoid robots and consciousness, loneliness among older people, and other topics. Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She is The New York Times bestselling author of Alone Together, Reclaiming Conversation, and The Empathy Diaries. Turkle’s most recent book is Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk To Machines. Website: www.sherryturkle.com CHAPTERS 0:00 Technology and Connection 3:40 The Internet’s Promise 6:44 Attention and Solitude 10:39 Smartphones and Empathy 14:05 Defining Empathy 20:23 Can Machines Care? 26:07 Memory vs. Experience 35:12 Consciousness and Identity 41:43 Chatbots as Therapists 47:47 Evaluating AI Therapy 50:46 Recorded Music Analogy 54:15 AI and Pronouns 56:46 Ethics of Performance 1:02:28 Artificial Relationships 1:10:29 AI for Seniors