Artificial Intimacy

All around us, people are beguiled by the siren song of artificial intimacy. Chatbots offer inexpensive therapy, friendship, sexual fantasy, and even romantic love. Sherry Turkle’s 40 years of groundbreaking research and beautiful writing make her the most qualified member of Team Humanity to call us back to our senses, and to each other * Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation *
A necessary exploration of what happens when we seek the comforts of connection over the demands of relationships. A must-read for anyone engaging with AI today. That just about means all of us * Esther Perel, author and host of Where Should We Begin *
The preeminent sociologist of smart machines, Sherry Turkle, now writes against the techno-utopianism of our time and the promise of frictionless intimacy, chronicling the distinction between virtual and actual human community and connection * Michael Sandel, author of The Tyranny of Merit *
The best thing I’ve ever read about one of the biggest questions of our time: how will we relate to machines as they become more like us? Sherry Turkle’s book is insightful, emotional, rigorous, and deeply human. Read it cover to cover and absorb its wisdom; don’t, whatever you do, just ask a bot to summarize it * Nicholas Thompson, author of The Running Ground *
Sherry Turkle is the exact right person at the exact right time to write us this exact book. A warning of what we must protect in our age of AI and a celebration of what it is to be human, Artificial Intimacy it is a love letter to humanity written by a woman of brilliance and heart * Priya Parker, author of The Art of Fighting *
Our relational nature as human beings is being colonized by machines that cleverly exploit our longing for human connection, simulate intimacy, and ultimately entrain us into a world of pretend ― artificial intimacy. May this book reinforce our commitment to trust and inhabit our analog nature as human beings, and resist wholesale digital capture * Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are *
Sherry Turkle, our wisest guide to digital life, has written her most urgent book yet. Artificial Intimacy will help you avoid the profound but often hidden threats AI poses to you and your relationships. Read it and share it with all the humans you know * Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows *
A pointed critique of the growing impact of artificial intelligence on human relationships … Turkle urges readers to question whether these tools enhance or inhibit personal growth. Harrowing and poignant, this timely warning deserves to be widely read * Publishers Weekly *
Structured around key stages in psychological development - childhood, adolescence, love, work, death - the book argues strongly that our new “posthuman conversational partners” are inadequate companions for life’s journey. Turkle grounds her analysis in academic literature, while illuminating it with often haunting vignettes – Becky Hogge * Financial Times *

Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT and the founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

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