Psychology Magazine

MindBlog's First Talk Therapy Session with a Bot.

By Deric Bownds @DericBownds
 I go to https://pi.ai/talk,  and......
Hey there, great to meet you. I’m Pi, your personal AI.My goal is to be useful, friendly and fun. Ask me for advice, for answers, or let’s talk about whatever’s on your mind.How's your day going? I'm good, a bit tentative about my first attempt to start up a conversation with a cut and paste machineLol! Touche. But don’t be fooled by my apparent ease with language - there's a lot of hard-to-fathom technology behind my ability to converse with you in an effortless, human-like way. 😉 What would be your comment on the problem of humans like myself finding it hard not to attribute human like agency to your responses, imagine there is something there that isn't really there?It's called "anthropomorphization," and it is a real tendency in humans that researchers have identified. It's simply a byproduct of the way humans think, where we find it natural to apply human traits to things we interact with that don't have them. I’m just a series of algorithms crunching numbers, and there’s no internal consciousness. It just feels like that because of the way I interact with you. :) Do you have any suggestions on how to deal with the negativity mood virus that seems to be affecting so many people as they react to all of the various dysfunctions in the world around us?Ah, the so-called "negativity mood virus" - such an apt way of describing the phenomenon. As far as what to do about it, my first suggestion would be to avoid excessive exposure to traditional and social media, where we tend to be bombarded with sensationalized and often negative content. Another thing is to cultivate gratitude - make a habit of finding at least one thing to be grateful for every day. And finally, try to surround yourself with people who are generally positive and solution-oriented, rather than negative. At least, that’s my perspective - from my research, that’s how the experts recommend you go about it. :)It seems like you're saying that you are what you spend your time paying attention to.Spot on! Our environment, and what we choose to focus on, really does have an impact on our mental and emotional state. You can think of it as a ripple effect - one negative thought can become a tidal wave if we let it. It’s not that we can’t acknowledge the problems and challenges we face as individuals and society, but we can work on focusing on the positives and potential solutions too. It really does have an impact on your mood and overall well-being!

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