Beyond Friendship: AI's Shadow on the Fragile Fabric of Human Relationships

In these times, artificial intelligence is the talk of the town, and we've extensively delved into its intersection in the business realm. However, on this special day dedicated to friendship, I'd like to steer our conversation toward the future. In the coming years, we'll witness how more people use artificial intelligence software as a conversation companion, reaching the point of forming a friendship with a digital 'personality.'

Today, in the midst of the artificial intelligence era, friendship and love take on new meanings. To fully grasp this evolution, let's step back in time and explore what friendship means in the era of intelligent machines.

When I was 21, I decided to go for a postgraduate degree, an adventure that would take me far from my home, about 2000 kilometers away. It was a journey full of challenges from the beginning. After three buses and 21 hours with stops in unknown cities, I finally arrived at a remote town. From there, I took another bus to my final destination, carrying with me a suitcase full of dreams, dishes, and a small portable electric stove to survive student life.

My parents didn't know much about me during that time; our conversations were sporadic and limited to phone calls every two weeks. My parents made sure my life at a distance was in order. We talked about classes, teachers, and new friends, but I avoided mentioning lonely nights or the uncertainty of not having a plan for my first birthday far from home. I didn't want to worry them. So, I continued the family tradition of hiding concerns and assuring them that everything was fine, even when it wasn't.

Nowadays, I still live hundreds of kilometers away from my parents, but thanks to technology, our interactions have evolved. Now, we talk, exchange messages, and share photos daily. The physical distance has been reduced, even though I can only go home a couple of times a year. Technology has transformed how we experience space and time, making the gap between us seem less daunting with every message sent.

As technology has become omnipresent in my life, I've observed the transformation in two eras: the time before web 2.0 and the time after. Now, my focus is on Digital Transformation, exploring where we are heading. Trust and acceptance are key issues in this technological shift, especially regarding privacy and the use of personal data.

My studies and professional career have focused on the era of applied intelligence, specifically in financial risk management in the fintech era. The integration of artificial intelligence in this field offers significant benefits. Fraud detection becomes efficient, credit assessment is more accurate, and operational risk management transforms to improve efficiency.

However, it's not all a fairy tale. The implementation of artificial intelligence in risk management poses ethical challenges and data reliability issues. Despite the benefits, addressing ethical concerns such as transparency and fairness is essential to gain the trust of consumers and regulators.

But we'll talk about that another time; today, I'd like to focus on a new emerging trend: virtual friendship with artificial intelligence. It's an intriguing phenomenon gaining ground, especially in the realm of loneliness and digital connection.

We can see that more and more people use artificial intelligence software as a conversation companion and eventually become friends with a 'digital personality.' Commercial companies have been developing applications for years with this sole purpose: to interact with lonely individuals and make them feel connected to a digital friend.

With the arrival of large language models, these applications are improving. And because they are improving, more people are using them. There are many examples, both new and old, of this type of software, from friendly and light to suggestive and complex.

From a commercial perspective, virtual friendship is, of course, very interesting. Users become attached to a digital friend and, therefore, stay on the application for a long time.

On the other hand, I can imagine that people are more likely to share certain personal and embarrassing issues with software than with another human because the threshold is lower. That can be an advantage, for example, in a low-threshold online therapy where you confide in a chatbot of artificial intelligence about issues you wouldn't quickly tell friends. And in a sense, this is an advantage because mental health care requires special attention.

But this is my call to action!

In my honest opinion, friendship with artificial intelligence is a decline in our human cohesion. We are moving our human connections to the digital world, and in doing so, we are weakening the social bond among humans. We've seen the previous wave with the rise of social networks. Furthermore, psychologists attribute much of the decrease in the number of friends and the increase in feelings of loneliness to the rise of social networks.

Digital contact can be valuable for some, but it's just as important that we continue to feel that we are part of a whole. Of humanity. Of planet Earth. That we are loved by other people and that we are capable of loving other flesh-and-blood humans. When we are connected with others, the quality of our life increases.

So, on this special day: send a WhatsApp message to that friend you haven't talked to in a long time, or call them. Ask how they are. Listen. Send a nice photo, a voice message, or a funny video to all your friends and family. Visit each other, get together! Shake hands or hug each other. Establish a connection. Well, that's my message today, and Happy Friendship Day. At least in Mexico, and in some other countries in Latin America. Happy day!.