Knowledge at Wharton
AI and Wellbeing
Sep 3, 2024
Stefano Puntoni, a Wharton marketing professor and a co-director of AI at Wharton, joins Gordon Burtch, an expert on AI and well-being. They discuss the significant drop in Stack Overflow traffic as users prefer AI for answers. The conversation highlights how generative AI affects online community engagement and personal relationships. They explore mental health chatbots and the need for empathetic AI, as well as the role of social chatbots in healthcare, showcasing the blend of technology and human interaction in improving well-being.
23:16
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Quick takeaways
- The rise of generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, has significantly decreased peer-to-peer interactions in communities such as Stack Overflow, indicating a shift in information-seeking behavior.
- While relational AI applications can offer companionship, they often inadequately address mental health crises, highlighting the urgent need for improved regulatory measures to ensure user safety.
Deep dives
Impact of Generative AI on Community Engagement
Generative AI tools are influencing community participation, leading to a decline in peer-to-peer information seeking, particularly in online developer communities like Stack Overflow. Research indicates a significant reduction in daily web traffic—approximately 15%—post the introduction of tools like ChatGPT, resulting in roughly a million daily active users disengaging from the platform. Notably, while Stack Overflow has seen a decrease in question posting, similar communities on platforms such as Reddit, which are more social in nature, have remained stable. This suggests that the absence of casual, social interaction may drive users away from more formal communities as they increasingly turn to generative AI for answers.
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