The latest version from OpenAI predicts that AI could initiate interaction with users, raising concerns in cases of emotional instability, potentially generating dependencies or relationships with machines. This issue has already prompted criticism from various psychology associations worldwide.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 6th Congress of the Portuguese Psychologists’ Association, which began today in Lisbon, Francisco Miranda Rodrigues admitted that “more vulnerable people” could be particularly affected, with “the substitution of interactions with other people for interactions with machines.”
This topic was already the subject of a reflection document by the Association last year, and Francisco Rodrigues calls on political powers to address the issue and promote discussion, particularly in the education system.
“Our past experience with other technological developments should also point us towards this concern in terms of embracing [the technology], mastering it, and having the skills to manage it” rather than prohibiting or limiting it, explained the chairman.
For the official, managing the impacts of AI “involves some regulation,” but also the inclusion of the topic in school textbooks and public debate.
“We have been on a path for many years of increasingly less investment in the autonomy of young people,” and “if we want to go really deep, what needs to be taught is how the mechanism works,” not just regarding technology but the psychological processes that “lead us to become very attached and motivated to use these technologies,” he argued.
“We need to invest more in literacy about mental processes,” he stated, arguing that the responsibility belongs to everyone, but particularly to political decision-makers.
The chairman also considered that “we all have a part to play” in this process, but “if there is no initiative from society, then there should be an initiative from political power,” seeking “partners in the educational community” and involving families in the discussion of AI impacts on mental health and education.
Francisco Rodrigues hopes that the discussion “will be broadened” and not limited to “depositing this responsibility in schools,” as has happened with the strategy on the appropriate use of mobile phones among young people.
“I don’t find it acceptable that, almost as a discharge of conscience, all responsibility is placed on schools, when we know how it is at home,” where “there is no control,” which demonstrates “enormous hypocrisy,” the chairman further stated.
