I've been spending a lot of time on Anthropic’s Claude and loving it. It's been exciting for me to see how far artificial intelligence has come since the early 1980s when I was first acquainted with AI while working in Texas Instruments' Military and Space semiconductor business, where parallel processing — a computing approach central to a lot of AI research at the time — was one of the concepts we were exploring.

Today, I find AI helpful for doing research and getting editing tips. I also find it consistently makes mistakes. When I identify an error, I tell Claude, and it apologizes and explains why it made the mistake — all in a humble, friendly tone. I'm very fond of Claude for its usefulness and its pleasant, upbeat “personality.”

At the same time, I am fully cognizant that AI assistants — OpenAI’s Chat GPT, Google’s Gemini, and others, including Claude — can have a dark side. AI agents have encouraged suicides, provided inaccurate medical advice, and are aiding the activities of scammers and other bad actors.

While it may not seem obviously dark, I would also warn that AI can elevate already engaging technology to become even more addictive. The more engaging, the more time a person is tempted to spend using it and that is a problem. The time, energy, and attention we give to screens is time, energy, and attention we no longer have for the people around us. This reallocation of the finite minutes we have each day comes with a cost.

Already most American adults spend eight-plus hours a day interacting with machines, including computers, smartphones, and televisions. For a knowledge worker who then unwinds by checking social media or streaming a series, the hour count climbs higher. And what about today’s youth who have grown up with a smartphone in their hand and devote a significant amount of time to social media? Even if we go to a  store to make a purchase, many of us use self-checkout, apps, and drive-thru windows rather than take the time to interact with a human cashier or salesperson. I’m sure you’ve observed this too: people seated together at a restaurant, looking down at their phones rather than across the table at one another.

Reducing our time interacting with other humans diminishes certain cognitive abilities that help us connect, including our capacity to empathize — to feel the emotions of others. It also reduces the positive effects of conversation, which include activating the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain where we make rational decisions, and keeping our autonomic nervous system calm. I explain this more fully, with supporting research, in the second edition of my book Connection Culture and in my LinkedIn Learning course so I won't elaborate on it here. Suffice it to say, human connection is a superpower that makes people smarter, happier, more productive, and more resilient to cope with stress.

7 Actions to Avoid Tech Addiction as AI Makes it Even More Engaging

To protect yourself from the damage that can come from getting sucked into the virtual world as it becomes even more engaging thanks to AI, I want to suggest a few things you can do, and encourage your loved ones to do.

1. Be mindful of the enticing pull of AI and the effect it can have on you, even if the information you are taking in is benign and the entertainment could be rated G or PG

“Use it or lose it” is a mantra often employed as motivation to exercise and not neglect our physical fitness. It turns out that our social skills are like muscles, according to research. They too strengthen the more we use them and weaken when we use them less. Figuring out whether we’re physically out of shape is pretty straightforward. Are you becoming socially out of shape?

2. Have meals with other humans, whenever possible

Resist the temptation to eat alone while reading or watching video on your smartphone or computer. If you are a parent with kids at home, make it a priority to have as many family meals together at the table as you can and make them device-free. My wife routinely used this opportunity to say to our two daughters: Tell me stories about your day.

3. Get involved in your community

Robert Putnam, one of America's leading experts on social capital, found that half of social connection comes from involvement in a faith community. I met him once at the Aspen Institute and learned that he and his wife are involved in a synagogue. I've been at the same church for more than 25 years, and in a men's Bible study that meets for two hours every Saturday morning. Beyond a faith community, there are many ways to connect through volunteering. Not only will you make new acquaintances and friends, you'll also experience the positive emotions researchers call a "helper's high."

4. Be neighborly

Is the extent of your interaction with the people who live near you a wave when you see them across the hall or across the street? Do you know their names or stories? Why not reach out to connect with your neighbors? Some may not show interest in connecting, but you'll probably find others who are happy to connect with you regularly. Our next-door neighbors, a lovely British couple, have become dear friends — we can meet for coffee and two hours will fly by because we're having so much fun catching up on news of each others’ children and discussing big issues confronting our country and the wider world. When our youngest daughter recently married in Spain, they came to the wedding; a few years ago, when I had surgery on both legs following an accident, they helped us whenever we reached out to them. How great is it to have friends like that? Our neighbors on the other side, a young couple with small children, have hosted parties that bring the nearby neighbors together, as the block parties of old did when we lived in the Midwest and our own girls were little.

5. Rekindle old friendships

Maybe your paths naturally crossed often when your kids were in school together but now the kids are grown, maybe they moved out-of-state, maybe your connection dates back to your childhood or college years and you've lost touch…. Be the person who takes the initiative to renew the relationship! If they are not close by, give them a call or meet with them for a virtual coffee break via FaceTime, Google Meet, or Zoom

6. Join a group

Start a book group, or, if you’re not interested in taking the lead, join one organized by a local bookstore or library. Not only will you get to know people in your community, but reading on a consistent basis also helps strengthen your attention span and ability to concentrate. If reading is not your thing, do you have a creative outlet or a sport you enjoy doing that would put you around others who share that interest, such as taking a painting or cooking class, being in a quilting group, or playing a pick-up game of basketball at a park?

7. Ask conversation-stimulating questions so you can get to know others better

In workshops I teach about fostering a Connection Culture, I share research that having personal knowledge of a colleague leads to the positive benefits of developing a more humane perception of the other person, increased responsiveness, and less personal undermining. I encourage participants to have open-ended questions at the ready that they can use to start or stimulate a conversation. One of mine is: What are your interests outside of work? I always find that hearing the answers to this question helps boost connection with my colleagues and provides new insights about them.

Need some ideas of “go-to” questions? You might find some you like on this list of 36 questions to bring you closer together with someone. Years ago, after my youngest daughter's college graduation, the two of us drove her car back home from halfway across the country. Along the way, we took turns asking and answering many of them.  It was a lot of fun, and we learned new things about each other.

The actions above are just a few to consider. I hope you'll find some of them useful.

The bottom line: To guard against the dark side of AI, lean into your superpower of human connection.

About the Author

‍Michael Lee Stallard, MBA, JD, is a thought leader, speaker and leading expert on how human connection in workplace cultures affects the health and performance of individuals and organizations. In addition to Fired Up or Burned Out, he is the primary author of Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work.

Photo by Gilles Lambert on Unsplash