Conversing with a chatbot is fundamentally different from having a real conversation with another human being.
Advocates of GenAI, or what is often called conversational AI, like chatbots, emphasize their ability to engage in conversation. While it’s true that we can have conversation-like interactions with chatbots, they ultimately lack the core features that characterize real human conversations. Chatbots may simulate conversational patterns, but their interactions fall far short of replicating the depth and complexity of genuine dialogue between people. There are several reasons.
A chatbot does not have subjective experiences, emotions, or a sense of self. It responds based on algorithms designed to mimic human conversation but does not have inner experiences, feelings, or consciousness like a person does. A chatbot’s responses are generated artificially to sound conversational without any lived experiences behind its words.
Furthermore, a chatbot does not have a persistent memory or complex personality that develops over time. While it can refer back to previous parts of a conversation, a chatbot does not continuously build up memories, relationships, and character traits through many conversations over months and years as a human does. Its personality is limited to what it was programmed with rather than learning and growing independently.
In addition, a chatbot’s knowledge is restricted to what it has been trained on, unlike a human’s capacity for open-ended learning and conversation on all topics. A human can exchange ideas on something entirely new, but a chatbot cannot go beyond the pre-programmed knowledge limitations of its training data. This makes for a much narrower and repetitive conversational repertoire in a chatbot.
Moreover, there is no genuine turn-taking in a conversation with a chatbot. Its responses are generated word-by-word rather than from free-flowing thoughts and reactions the way a human’s side of a conversation stems from unique ideas and perspectives. The conversation has a mechanical nature to it from the chatbot’s side.
A chatbot also lacks a physical presence, including facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice, and other nuances that provide depth and meaning during in-person human conversations. Without this human element, talks with a chatbot are flat and disjointed.
When a chatbot can engage us without prompting by inquiring about our family, remembering details we’ve shared about our health, referencing previous conversations and evolving its perspectives, recommending media and content based on our interests, and steering our discussion in unexpected directions, then we can start to consider it closer to a real conversation partner.
The experience would become even more natural through voice conversations where a chatbot calls to check in and deepen our rapport. Video conversations with an interactive chatbot avatar capable of expressing nuance and emotion would further close the gap. But until a chatbot can demonstrate true memory, autonomy, creativity, and relationship-building skills, any “conversation” remains limited by the technology’s predetermined constraints. The illusion of human connection does not equate to genuine understanding and free-flowing dialogue in how actual people converse.
Despite advances in natural language processing and AI, these limitations prevent chatbots from replicating genuine human conversations’ depth, nuance, and authenticity. While they can be valuable tools for specific tasks, it’s crucial to recognize their constraints.
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