Washington, October 18 (QNA) - AI-powered chatbots could cloud children's ability to distinguish humans from machines by simulating human emotions and parental affection, potentially blurring the boundaries between human relationships and interactions with digital technologies, American scientists warned.

Interviews with parents provided further evidence of this, with some reporting that their children believed a real person was inside a computer or smartphone

Sherry Turkle, a sociologist and researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said using AI raises fundamental questions about its impact on childhood development, particularly children's ability to distinguish humans from inanimate objects.

She added that these concerns extend beyond children to adults who rely heavily on chatbots in their daily lives.

Sustained interactions with these applications may lead some users to believe that a robot is a living being that cares about them and reciprocates their feelings, even though it is a technological system incapable of genuine human emotion.

In a related development, researchers from the University of Zurich in Switzerland and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands concluded that even the most advanced chatbots remain unable to accurately replicate the full spectrum of human linguistic expression, according to a paper published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The researchers found that AI-generated text can be systematically distinguished from human communication, based on an analysis of messages and posts on social media.

They noted that AI consistently struggled to capture the emotional nuances and intended meaning of users' messages.

Previous research has also raised consternations about a potential association between AI use and declining mental health. Researchers from the University of Oxford and University College London warned of a possible “feedback loop” in which chatbot interactions may reinforce delusional thinking among users. (QNA)