ChatGPT Helped Him Say Goodbye to His Mom

How AI could meet our relationship needs

Machines conquered the physical world. AI mastered creativity and imagination. Next stop: human relationships.

I like to remind myself there’s a special place reserved for us in the future we’re creating. A place that, no matter how good AI gets, it won’t reach. A place we don’t enter with skill or intelligence but through connection and belonging.

When people asked me, before ChatGPT, which jobs I believed were the safest from AI I never said creativity-based professions like writing or artistry (although I naively believed those were kinda safe). Neither did I say trades that require huge amounts of manual labor and dexterity, like farming, industry work, or carpentry.

I always responded—and still do—that the safest jobs are those whose essence lies in the connection between humans. Nurses, therapists, mentors, caregivers… those were the ones I didn’t see machines doing. Lack of ability could explain it but I’ve learned to not bet against AI. No, my reason wasn't contingent on progress:

Those jobs are safer because they’re less about how they're done and more about who does them. It’s the presence of a person by our side that makes us feel safe, understood, seen. AIs, however apt, couldn't compete by definition.

This isn’t the preface to admitting I no longer believe it. I do. But there’s one critical aspect I never considered when I offered that beautifully hopeful response.

Life is as much about connection as it is about the lack thereof.

Loneliness creeps inside all of us: the people we lost and now miss; those who never came yet we long for. For some, it’s a tiny thought in the back of the mind. It almost isn’t there. For others, it’s a daily dose of a kind of suffering so absolute it becomes the baseline. If there was a chance—imperfect, the shadow of a fix—they would take it.

The coping mechanism we didn’t know we needed

Fears about AI-generated content flooding the internet are getting louder. I’m nevertheless pleasantly surprised to keep finding, on that same internet, the most amazing stories about humans being humans. I share below one of those. A gray story. Sad, but happy in a way. The type that best depicts the curse—and blessing—of the human condition.

I was browsing r/ChatGPT and a post instantly caught my attention. It wasn't your typical chatbot joke, or a list of the "99 best new prompts you should try" or one of the countless weekly AI reviews.

It was a confession.

I, like seemingly the hundreds of commenters, was caught off guard by the sheer vulnerability. A ChatGPT story sparked in me the most humane empathy. Paradoxical.