While the Stanford One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence does showcase the tremendous promise that Artificial Intelligence holds as a tool to change the landscape of human society, I do not agree with the articles suggestion that AIs expansion into the entertainment industry can cause a degradation of interpersonal communication between people.

I am in complete agreement with the fact that the technological surge, both in terms of innovation and commercialization, in the last couple of decades has changed how people socialize and has put some form of tech device between 2 communicating people. The article contends that given the current reliance of people on technology as their source of entertainment, advances in AI will only increase that reliance which will lead to lesser and lesser human interaction. Contrarily, I believe that AI can help people become more interactive by saving them time. Developments in AI in the home with cleaning bots or in the workplace are being made with a goal to aid human functioning. Whenever unexpected opportunities to interact with other people come up, people often find themselves hard pressed in terms of their time. If AI can free up time and energy for people by taking over tasks like driving to and from work, people might just find the time talk to that friend they have not spoken to in a while, while a machine worries about the next stop sign or that jaywalking kid.

Further, the fact that the development of AI today envisions an intelligent robot in every home in the future, can only increase human interaction. There are multiple ways to look at this. Since, Artificial Intelligence seeks to replicate human intelligence into machines, the robots of the future will be made as humanly as possible. And that means you have a close to human companion to interact with at your pleasing. Secondly, AI can also help socially uncomfortable people get over their fears and insecurities thus enabling them to become better communicators which directly increases the quality of (more) human interaction. Lastly, talking about AI paints a picture of the distant future much like something out of the cartoon, The Jetsons. I can only guess but perhaps with technology and machinery occupying every nook and cranny of peoples lives, people might just turn to human interaction naturally.

In the entertainment industry there is a huge scope to be creative. I strongly believe that AI in this industry, in contrast to what was proposed in the article, can become an agent for reinforcing human interaction. The HBO hit TV series, Westworld, which is based on a 1973 movie by Michael Crichton, exemplifies this belief. The series is set in a future at a time where humans have made immense leaps in AI development. So much so, that they have constructed a theme park of intelligent androids who are not only capable of functioning by themselves, they start becoming sentient too. In the show, humans pay to enter the theme park and interact with the lifelike hosts. They are privileged with the discretion to do whatever they please. If AI is perfected, I strongly believe that it can change the entertainment industry and if done the right way, it can innovate new ways to encourage human interaction.