Leading AI researchers now expect artificial general intelligence (AGI) – where AI meets or exceeds human intellectual capabilities – within three to five years. When AGI automates thinking, the economy will need to reorganise around what machines cannot do: feel.
We are already in the intimacy economy. But if we are to thrive within it, we must wrestle back our most valuable economic asset from technology: the messy complexities of being human. My generation are the begrudging harbingers of what will happen if we continue to outsource intimacy: we will lose the emotional skills a post-AGI economy will depend on most, rendering us unemployable. We knew social media was addictive and slowing our cognitive development, but officials took until this year to act. We can’t make the same mistake with the intimacy economy.
It's not just 'they' that need an intervention, imo. Vulnerable people need to be shown that people can be relied upon.
I also think that we need to support youth from primary school onwards to develop insight, emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills in real-life situations and to learn about this AI minefield, otherwise, mental health problems are going to keep increasing.