Sherry Turkle: Artificial Intimacy 🗓️ An Interintellect Salon on December 8

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Sherry Turkle: Artificial Intimacy 🗓️ An Interintellect Salon on December 8

Join this much-awaited conversation.

Interintellect

Oct 22, 2026

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Join this Salon

Join us on December 8 for this much-awaited online converstion with Sherry Turkle:

Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines

Grab your

ticket

🎟️

MIT ethnographer Sherry Turkle joins MIT’s Wes Chow to discuss her new book,

Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines

.

Social media mines the attention economy and, Turkle argues, artificial intelligence is likewise turning it’s tools to the attachment economy. Chatbots offer themselves as best friends, lovers, and psychotherapists, performing acts of sympathy but never truly knowing loss or love. If we accept that performance as enough, we start to forget why we needed the real thing: the risk of a hard conversation, the work of getting through uncertainty, and the friction of being known by another person.

Turkle has studied how people relate to computers for more than four decades, from

The Second Self

through

Alone Together

and

Reclaiming Conversation

. In this SuperSalon, we’ll look at what has changed now that the machines talk back and the path to holding on to humanity in the age of AI.

We welcome you to attend whether or not you’ve had the chance to read the book. No computer science or psychology background required!

Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She is the New York Times bestselling author of

Alone Together

,

Reclaiming Conversation

, and

The Empathy Diaries

. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

During this salon, we’ll discuss:

What is “artificial intimacy”? How is a relationship with a chatbot different from one with a pet, a diary, or a character in a novel?

Why is “pretend empathy” so seductive? What do we get from a companion that is always available, never judges, and never needs anything back?

How might children who grow up confiding in AI understand friendship, conflict, and trust differently from earlier generations?

Are there good uses for AI companions, such as for the lonely, the grieving, or the socially anxious? Where does the line fall between a crutch and a substitute?

What do builders of AI owe their users? Can we design machines that send us back toward each other instead of away?

What does reclaiming our humanity look like in practice, for individuals, families, schools, and companies?

Suggested Preparation

Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines

– Hachette Book Group:

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sherry-turkle/artificial-intimacy/9780316573962/

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