Artificially Yours: Real Friendship in a World of Chatbots
May 2026 · Princeton University Press
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224
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About this ebook
A human perspective on the nature of friendship in the age of artificial intelligence
Is friendship with a chatbot as good as friendship with an actual person? Is there something about human friendships that eludes simulation? If so, what? And how much will the answers to questions like these change as AI develops and becomes more convincingly like us? Artificially Yours explains what friendship is and why it’s valuable—and why there is no perfect substitute for human friends.
Blending insights from philosophy, psychology, and her own entertaining experiences with chatbots, Valerie Tiberius addresses a subject at the heart of our growing reliance on AI companions. She defines the ideal friendship as an enjoyable, close relationship built on shared activities between people who care about each other for their own sake. But few things in life are ever ideal, including friendship. Tiberius demonstrates how different kinds of friendships can be valuable in different ways: they can be pleasurable or useful, they can shape who we are and how we see ourselves, and the best ones are good for their own sakes. Using each of these values as her guide, Tiberius finds that relationships with chatbots do in fact exhibit some of the characteristics of friendship—but cautions that even future relationships with advanced AI are highly unlikely to be good in all the ways human friendships are.
A vital contribution to our ongoing conversation about human-AI relationships, Artificially Yours weighs the ethical risks before us as we look to a future with intelligent machines and affirms the value of human connections.
Is friendship with a chatbot as good as friendship with an actual person? Is there something about human friendships that eludes simulation? If so, what? And how much will the answers to questions like these change as AI develops and becomes more convincingly like us? Artificially Yours explains what friendship is and why it’s valuable—and why there is no perfect substitute for human friends.
Blending insights from philosophy, psychology, and her own entertaining experiences with chatbots, Valerie Tiberius addresses a subject at the heart of our growing reliance on AI companions. She defines the ideal friendship as an enjoyable, close relationship built on shared activities between people who care about each other for their own sake. But few things in life are ever ideal, including friendship. Tiberius demonstrates how different kinds of friendships can be valuable in different ways: they can be pleasurable or useful, they can shape who we are and how we see ourselves, and the best ones are good for their own sakes. Using each of these values as her guide, Tiberius finds that relationships with chatbots do in fact exhibit some of the characteristics of friendship—but cautions that even future relationships with advanced AI are highly unlikely to be good in all the ways human friendships are.
A vital contribution to our ongoing conversation about human-AI relationships, Artificially Yours weighs the ethical risks before us as we look to a future with intelligent machines and affirms the value of human connections.
A human perspective on the nature of friendship in the age of artificial intelligence
Is friendship with a chatbot as good as friendship with an actual person? Is there something about human friendships that eludes simulation? If so, what? And how much will the answers to questions like these ch...
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About the author
Valerie Tiberius is professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota. Her books include What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters (Princeton), Well-Being as Value Fulfillment: How We Can Help Each Other to Live Well, and The Reflective Life: Living Wisely with Our Limits.
Valerie Tiberius is professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota. Her books include What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters (Princeton), Well-Being as Value Fulfillment: How We Can Help Each Other to Live Well, and The Reflective Life: Living Wis...
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