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In the face of loneliness, many people are turning to AI chatbots for companionship - but research shows it can't replace human connection. Guaranteed compassion, encouragement and validation? A soothing voice available to massage your ego whenever you feel unsure of yourself? If you could find a living being with these qualities, you'd call them your soulmate, and yet it is exactly what many chatbots are offering an increasing number of users. But can those exchanges with AI ever achieve the benefits of real, human connection?

Be careful asking chatbots about your health. After George Mallon had his blood drawn at a routine physical, he learned that something may be gravely wrong. The preliminary results showed he might have blood cancer. Further tests would be needed. Left in suspense, he did what so many people do these days: He opened ChatGPT.

Tran* sat across from me, phone in hand, scrolling. "I just wanted to make sure I didn't say the wrong thing," he explained, referring to a disagreement with his partner. "So I asked ChatGPT what I should say." He read the chatbot-generated message aloud. It was articulate, logical and composed – too composed.

If your cat's sulking, your dog's whining or your rabbit's doing that strange thing with its paws again, you will recognise that familiar pang of guilt shared by most other pet owners. But for those who wish they knew just what was going on in the minds of their loyal companions, help may soon be at hand – thanks to the establishment of first scientific institution dedicated to empirically investigating the consciousness of animals. The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience, based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), will begin its work on 30 September, researching non-human animals, including those as evolutionarily distant from us as insects, crabs and cuttlefish. One of its most eye-catching projects will be to explore how AI can help humans "speak" with their pets, the dangers of it going wrong – and what we need to do to prevent that happening. "We like our pets to display human characteristics and with the advent of AI, the ways in which your pet will be able to speak to you is going to be taken to a whole new level," said Prof Jonathan Birch, the inaugural director of the centre.

Will AI replace your job? Work is a state of upheaval--and beyond shifts in where and when people work, changes are occurring in the content of work itself--literally in responsibilities, tasks and assignments. This is fueled by AI and most recently, ChatGPT. People are uncertain about whether they'll be replaced by technology--and at the same time, they're looking for greater meaning from work and more flexibility in how they go about it. But it is possible to reimagine the work experience in the new digital landscape, emphasizing what humans do best and ensuring the work experience is engaging, challenging and secure.

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology for many companies. Governments are developing strategies to encourage further adoption. However, many businesses are still wary of AI and require additional reassurance to go ahead, particularly in industries where implementation is slow. AI insurance is the solution to speed up adoption, says Saar Yoskovitz, co-founder & CEO of Augury. As the capabilities of AI solutions improve and development and implementation become easier, businesses are shifting their views and increasing the use of the technology.

The rise of'deep learning' has caused a lot of excitement around the revolutionary capabilities of these artificially intelligent agents. But it's also raised fear and suspicion about what exactly is going on inside each algorithm. One way for us to gain some understanding of our silicon-based friends (or foes?) is for them to disclose their framework of decision-making in a way that we humans can understand – by using the concept of personality. My research explores how some of these deep learning agents can be better understood through their'personalities' – like whether they are'greedy', 'selfish' or'prudent'. We are now at the dawn of a new era in AI technology – a so-called fourth industrial revolution that will reshape every industry.

'Is it ethical for Google's AI to call a human to book an appointment, while pretending to be another human?' Recently I wrote about Google's impressive-seeming Duplex AI voice assistant demonstration[1]. I said that although it seems magical, the trick depends on constraining the robot within very narrow parameters. Duplex is designed for "scheduling certain types of appointments" and that's it. By closing down the range of possible responses, the task for the AI is a lot simpler.

Just as call centre work begins to acquire the respect it deserves, workers face the prospect of having their jobs stolen away from them by the army of artificially intelligent chatbots that are transforming industries across the world. There was a time when work in a call centre was seen as a "McJob" – low skilled, low status and tedious to boot. This misperception has now been laid to rest as consumers begin to value and demand exceptional customer service across channels, and businesses increasingly understand the benefits of providing a great contact centre experience. But will robot employees actually replace humans – or is it more likely that they will complement them, freeing them from the more mundane aspects of day-to-day call centre work? Those of us who have been involved in contact centres for over two decades will struggle to suppress a wry smile at the thought of artificial intelligence (AI) and in particular, machine learning, replacing human workers in the call centre. We've been here several times before: Interactive Voice Response (IVR), speech recognition, digital TV, WAP and the Web, feature phones and smart phones – these were all all billed as the final nail in the coffin of the contact centre.