CAMBRIDGE — Sherry Turkle, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has spent decades examining how people form emotional bonds with machines. Her work has become a cornerstone for understanding the psychological risks of artificial intelligence, particularly for children. Turkle’s career spans from the dawn of personal computing to today’s AI boom.
She joined MIT in 1976, the same year she earned a PhD in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard University. Born in 1948 in New York City, she has published three books on technology and human connection: “The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit” (1984), “Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other” (2011), and “The Empathy Diaries” (2023).
Turkle testified before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on AI and children in 2023. That appearance came as lawmakers grapple with the rapid spread of AI tools used by minors, from chatbots to virtual companions.
From MIT Lab to Senate Hearing Room
Turkle’s academic home is the program in science, technology, and society at MIT, where she holds the title of professor of the social studies of science and technology. Her research has consistently focused on how people anthropomorphize computers and robots, treating them as social partners rather than tools. “Alone Together” documented a shift: children and adults alike were confiding in robotic toys and AI agents, seeking emotional connection from systems that could not reciprocate.
The book warned that reliance on technology for companionship might erode real human empathy. Her 2023 book “The Empathy Diaries” updated that thesis for the age of generative AI.
It examines the psychological impact of AI relationships, arguing that simulated empathy from machines could leave users less equipped for genuine emotional engagement with other people.
Recognition and Influence
Turkle’s warnings have penetrated beyond academia. Her 1999 Guggenheim Fellowship and 2015 Harvard Centennial Medal signal the weight her work carries in both social science and public policy circles. The Senate testimony in 2023 positioned her as a key voice in the debate over AI regulation.
She told the Commerce Committee that children are especially vulnerable to forming one-sided emotional attachments to AI systems, which cannot truly care for them. Turkle’s argument rests on decades of observation.
In “The Second Self,” she described how early computer users treated their machines as “evocative objects” that prompted reflection on human identity. By the time of “Alone Together,” those reflections had turned into a crisis: people were choosing robots over real relationships.
What to Watch Next
The 2023 Senate testimony has not produced federal legislation specific to AI and children, but several states have introduced bills addressing emotional AI and youth. Turkle continues to write and lecture on the topic, and her MIT research group tracks how new AI applications affect human development. For now, the core question she raised remains unresolved: whether the technology that promises to connect us actually isolates us further.
Her work suggests the answer depends less on the machines and more on the choices humans make about using them.
Sources
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