MIT Scholars Discuss the Risks of Humans' Tendency to Anthropomorphize AI
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In October 2026, a TechCrunch journalist experienced a Unitree humanoid robot priced at about $50,000 at MIT CSAIL, and, drawing on Sherry Turkle's new book Artificial Intimacy, explored why humans instinctively anthropomorphize robots and large language models (LLMs). The report points out that people easily treat AI as human when interacting with it; through firsthand experience with the robot and Turkle's book, the journalist analyzes this anthropomorphizing tendency and the problems it may cause. The report mainly presents discussions and observations of this phenomenon by MIT-affiliated scholars and the journalist, with no new follow-up developments yet.
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- TechCrunch · AIWe can’t help treating AI like it’s human. But should we?
After spending time with a roughly $50,000 Unitree humanoid robot at MIT CSAIL, a TechCrunch reporter explores, alongside Sherry Turkle’s new book Artificial Intimacy, why humans instinctively anthropomorphize robots and LLMs.
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