The yap gap

Is yapping dying out?

Studies show that, compared to 2005 levels, the average person spoke 3000 words less per day by 2018. If that trajectory has been maintained since, we’d have lost another 1400. Which, in the case of some people, begs the question of how they were possibly fitting more words into the day than they are now.

The research points to texting as a cause of our muted mouths, but now, artificial intelligence is replacing our need to talk to other people in every domain imaginable. 

It is replacing therapy, while threatening to exacerbate mental health crises. It is getting involved in dating, with Hinge testing AI-powered prompts to induce users into better conversations than “Hey, how you doing?”. It is playing a major role in both sides of applying for a new job. It is even helping worshippers talk to God. The Lord moves in mysterious ways, but it’s proprietary technology as to how. 

The trend has led to a nascent new term - AIsolation - which describes the slow withdrawal from human interaction into a world where chatbots become your primary points of contact.

The upshot of all this, aside from that increasingly familiar feeling of societal melancholy, is actually kind of terrifying. AI models are built to be sycophantic, which research has found leads to an increase in the Dunning-Kruger effect, where people who are bad at a task mistakenly overestimate their ability.

With AI encouragement replacing human feedback, we all start believing we are great at something (therapy, dating, getting a new job, worshipping our chosen deity) and stop trying to be better. 

After all, why take more interest in your new beau’s hobby or turn up to church on Sunday if you’re being told by the AI-powered hot blonde/all-knowing saviour that you’re already doing more than enough?

We need to get back to yapping. To other people, preferably.