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Cited by 56Ethics and Social Impacts of AISocial Robot Interaction and HRIAI in Service Interactions

“Can Computer Based Human-Likeness Endanger Humanness?” – A Philosophical and Ethical Perspective on Digital Assistants Expressing Feelings They Can’t Have”

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Porra, Jaana, Lacity, Mary, Parks, Michael S.·2020·Information Systems Frontiers
DOI 10.1007/s10796-019-09969-z
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Abstract

Digital assistants engage with us with increasingly human-like conversations, including the expression of human emotions with such utterances as“I am sorry…”, “I hope you enjoy…”, “I am grateful…”, or “I regret that…”. By 2021, digital assistants will outnumber humans. No one seems to stop to ask if creating more digital companions that appear increasingly human is really beneficial to the future of our species. In this essay, we pose the question:“How human should computer-based human-likeness appear?”We rely on the philosophy of humanness and the theory of speech acts to consider the long-term consequences of living with digital creatures that express human-like feelings. We argue that feelings are the very substance of our humanness and therefore are best reserved for human interaction.

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  • Because of technological limitations, the second wave of conversational agents never managed to overcome the uncanny valley, marking a significant gap in research and practice that in some areas persists until today.

    “Although best efforts to humanize CAs were made (Porra et al., 2020), because of technological limitations, this wave of CAs never managed to overcome the uncanny valley of CAs, thus marking a significant gap in research and practice that in some areas persists until today.”

    From Charting the Evolution and Future of Conversational Agents: A Research Agenda Along Five Waves and New Frontiers (2024) · cites this paper as Porra et al., 2020

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Authors
Porra, J., Lacity, M., & Parks, M. S.
Affiliations
  • University of Houston (US)
  • University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (US)
Corresponding author
Porra, Jaana
ORCID
Venue
Information Systems Frontiers
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2019-12-09
Volume
22
Issue
3
Pages
533-547
ISSN
  • 1387-3326 (ISSN-L)
  • 1572-9419
DOI
10.1007/s10796-019-09969-z
OpenAlex
W2996348799
Cited by
56
References
111
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 1
FWCI
9.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Information Systems Frontiers (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI in Service Interactions
Keywords
virtual assistants, human-likeness, humanness, speech acts, AI ethics, human-robot interaction, virtual companions

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