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Working with AI tools is making employees lonely and prone to drinking, a study finds
(www.fastcompany.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Technology
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Is this because they have less human interaction or is it because using these tools (that potentially cost coworkers their jobs) they see a future that could also cost them their job etc.
It just doesn’t add up, why would working with AI tools opposed to any other software tool cause more drinking, it’s not like they are that fundamentally different. It’s still a tool.
I’d be interested to see how they isolated use of AI from, well, everything else that’s happened in the last three years.
We are more stressed, burned out, socially isolated, broke, and pessimistic than ever.
The findings do make sense I think, if AI is replacing interpersonal collaboration and already dwindling social contact within that larger context, combined with the knowledge that (in my case, anyway) the very tool you’re using also poses a threat to your own financial future.
I mean yeah, shit sucks rn and I feel like its definitely possible that companies that are more likely to implement AI are already worse to work for. Psych isn't really my field but I did briefly read the paper and it seems to me like they were pretty thorough. They used multiple companies in different locations and forms of AI, across a few variations of the theme.
Method 1: Three week study, same company & position, no intervention, just tracking correlation between AI use and social variables.
Method 2: Three week study, same company & position, AI usage intervention (as much as possible (test) vs none at all (control))
Method 3: Different companies & position, one-off 30 minute business simulation experiment, AI usage vs no AI.
Method 4: Three week study, same company, different position, AI usage intervention.
The paper is linked from the article, but here it is anyway: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/apl-apl0001103.pdf