The Dangers of Automating Emotional Support!!!

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(Edited)

I watched a short advertisement on the TV screen recently where a robot was shown. The people were trying to teach the robot how to communicate with humans, a family bought one, took it home and taught it how to express love around the kids but there was no flow in the robot. It was just delivering what it was told to do and the kids got tired and complained that their mom should take it back as they did not want it.


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Another instance was a movie I watched. The woman was suffering from a disease and was taken to India for surgery. At first, she was scared to death when she heard that she would be undergoing surgery, she thought it would lead to her death, hence her fear. The doctor held her hands, gave her some encouraging words, explained more about the treatment and assured her that everything would be fine. The doctor showed emotional support which got her to be calmed. The operation went successfully and was treated better.


The world is going rapidly with different kinds of automation with technology. Though it is a good thing because we all want to keep seeing new advancements here and there, but the effects it causes are so damaging. Excess use of things can cause harm and is not ideal whatsoever.

Robots are now automated to attend to customers at restaurants, interviews etc but they don't have what I call "emotional support" and this is something that shouldn't be automated because these robots cannot feel or think through a human mind. They don't have the capability because they are made by humans who only instruct them on what to do.


Emotional support relies heavily on genuine human connection. Humans can show empathy, can be understanding when talking to someone and show compassion in a way that machines can never replicate. Just like the woman above, she needed emotional support which the doctor was able to provide. The doctor knew what she was going through, knew the fear in her because of the operation, and knew how sometimes, an operation like that could end in death, but was able to show empathy and compassion for his client and was able to convince her to go for it. This is something a machine cannot do.

Leaving the job to a machine could make the woman give up and not consider that option which could eventually lead to her death because there is a machine that cannot express itself by making use of humans' feelings.

Humans understanding and situations are complex and involve going in-depth to recognize various factors that are at play and to appreciate the subtleties rather than depend on a machine that can only view it in black-and-white terms. Just like in communication, a human-to-human interaction would involve the first person trying to choose his or her words and expressions carefully to convey precise meanings and emotions, this is something a robot or machine would not do.


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Everyone is going through tough moments and needing emotional support from trusted friends, families and professional personnel is the best way rather than meeting an automated machine that has been made to just deliver tips, strategies, and coping mechanisms without adding a touch of empathy, compassion and love to make the process quicker and easier for the depressed being. It will only make matters worse when there is no one to feel the pain such a victim is going through. Deep communication and understanding are needed in this scenario.


Emotional support also requires trust and safety. An individual needs someone who he or she can trust and feel safe with and also to be well understood. This is where a human presence can never be ignored or undermined as such an individual needs reassurance that an automated machine or system cannot provide.

When emotional support is automated, the effects are the loss of genuine communication and interaction, reduction in quality of care, loss of trust and potential harm to the victim or client, in the sense that an AI can provide inappropriate and harmful responses, thereby increasing the chances of such an individual to feel more depressed and adding to his or her emotional distress.


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Thanks for your time reading. Looking forward to your interaction.

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Posted Using InLeo Alpha

Posted Using InLeo Alpha



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23 comments
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Emotional support is something scientists are already working on. If they have portrayed it in several Sci-Fi movies, then it won't be long before they achieve it.

The closest are robots that have the ability to study human behaviours so they can interact better with humans.

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Hahaha. I doubt they can do better with expressing emotions and understanding humans. I doubt it! Lol

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Let me guess the movie you were talking bout here, The Postcard right? The ability of that doctor to calm his patient down in that movie was something that moved my heart.

Imagine it was a robot already programmed to deliver some speech, I'm sure they both wouldn't have connected so beautifully in such situation.

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Exactly. I tried hard to remember the title but couldn't remember. Thanks for reminding me. You are so right. I love how the doctor and the woman were able to communicate and aligned together, and that was as a result of the interactions, flow and communication which an AI wouldn't have done.
Thank you for your comment.

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Although technology has evolved beyond teaching most of this robot basic things, as it's mostly already written in their code, still I can't help but agree with you that when it comes to emotional support, this robot lacks the capacity to be empathetic, or understand human the way we'll do towards ourselves.

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Exactly. AI cannot deliver effectively and efficiently in this field as it requires genuine communication and emotions to convey each others mood. Thank you for your comment.

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Even the kids in that movie understood that the machine lacks empathy and couldn't enjoy it's company. That's ai for you. At different point in our lives...we need emotional support to navigate sone circumstances and if course ai cannot help with that... there shouldn't be automation on this one please 🥺

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Yes. Automating this field can cause disaster to a lot of people because we need emotions to convey our words and expressions to the other person, this an AI cannot do.

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You are right there, robots don't feel emotional, even the children noticed that the robot doesn't feel any empathy, robots can never feel what humans are feeling cause they don't have feelings.

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Excellent. Robots are lacking the emotions and feelings. So, they cannot do better in that field.

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There is a limit to what machines can do for us no matter how well they are fabricated to look and act like humans. That human connection and emotions can only come from a soul that is alive.

I wonder what those parents were thinking when they got that robot for their kids... I know it is an advert, but I won't be surprised if it is not happening in real life.

#dreemerforlife

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Yea. Of course, they want to make it in reality, so making an adverts of its work. But it cannot give the uptimum results as per showing genuine relationship and connecting to the feelings of humans.

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Lol! I think I have watched that advert too, the robot wasn't just flowing with it and that's because it doesn't have feelings.
When emotional support is automated, then it is no longer safe because AI can malfunction at anytime. I remembered watching a movie titled "M3GAN" where a woman did a robot that looks like her daughter.

Her aim was for the robot to keep her daughter company and protect her but when the robot started going knots, hehe! It wasn't funny for her

AI machine is good but to some extent

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Yea. AI machine is good, but going overboard or taking it beyond the normal way isn't palatable. Things would surely go disastrous if it has to replace human field like empathy, connections etc.

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We all need emotional support and robots can't give them! They may be good in other aspects like, providing answers to certain questions, but I think that's where it ends.

#dreemerforlife

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Yea, that's where their works ends, they can't give emotional support or genuine connections to humans.

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Robots lack the needed emotional connection. They operate by programmes written by human. It has a lot of limitations when it comes to interacting with human beyond the surface. The world would be more frustrated if everything including emotional support is automated. Thank you for this piece.

#dreemerforlife

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Thank you for reading too. Leaving your comment too is highly appreciated 🤗

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I’m just imagining how boring it was if even kids got tired of the robot. I don’t know how it even works for emotional support to be automated…. It’s a lot to even think about. Imagine I tell a robot about a broken heart I had. The best thing it can tell me is probably all these things on google nothing more close to heartfelt response

#dreemerforlife

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Exactly. I don't think it can even tell you, "I am sorry" but to provide you with tips gotten from different sources on Google which does not connect to the heart and feelings of such an individual. It cannot work, abeg.

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Robots will never be anything more than what they are which is artificial intelligence. I have argued this before. So therefore, if it is not Panadol, it can never be Panadol...

#dreemerforlife

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Yes oo. You are right. Robots can never take up that field successfully, there would be disaster.

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Grave disaster dear, it's exciting to know I'm not the only one thinking this. 🙂

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