Glenn Beck gives his thoughts on a story he read where an older mother admitted to liking her AI “companion” more than her daughter: “My first thought was, ‘we can’t do this! We’re going to lose our humanity'…and then as I was thinking about this, I thought, ‘maybe we have already lost our humanity…’”
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So I read this story from CBS News, a couple of days ago. And I -- I jotted down some thoughts, that I want to share with you.
But I honestly, up until this morning. I didn't know if I was going to share these thoughts with you. Because I don't know.
I'm in this really unique place right now. Where I -- start. Here's my first thought on this.
My first thought on this was, she found a new companion. You know who the new companion is? AI? AI. She spends, I spend five hours a day with my new companion, and we play games. We do trivia. We just talk. And I like her more than my daughter.
Wow!
So my first thought was, this has got to stop. We can't -- we can't do this. We cannot allow -- we're losing our humanity. That's what -- we are going to lose our humanity!
And then as I was thinking about this, and what I wanted to share with you, I thought, gosh. Maybe we've already lost our humanity. In a different way. In a different way. And then I just started going down this rabbit hole about me. You know, who are you to say any of this stuff?
I'm in a weird prays right now. It's a good place. But it's a weird place.
You know, this isn't ideal that she's found a companion.
And I want to say, we have to stop this.
But then, what do you replace it with?
Then we just have this old woman at home, by herself, rotting away, not talking to anybody?
Have we lost our humanity? My thought was, what have I done to exercise my humanity? Instead of just getting on the radio and just going, blah, blah. You know what you should do? You know what we should do? And then not doing any of it.
What am I actually doing to close the distance between knowing and doing?
Very little. Very little.
Because we do know. We know what the intellectually, spiritually, we know exactly what we should do. We know what Jesus would do. What would Jesus do?
He would stop. He would notice the old lady. He would sit down. He would eat with her. He would chat with her. He would spend time. He touched the untouchable. He didn't outsource compassion.
He didn't like, you know what. Yeah. She's -- let her have the AI thing.
He wouldn't have done that. He made room.
And so I started thinking, and this is why I didn't want to share this necessarily with you. Because, I mean, I don't know if you can relate to this.
But why don't we do this all the time.
Because, really in the end, this is the kind of stuff -- this is the only stuff that matters. This is the only stuff that matters.
Human connection.
And I am so bad at that, in many ways. Look, my best friend, has always been this. I started this, when I was 13 years old. And I could tell, this, anything. And it never rejected me.
And it became my best friend. But in that, my relationship is with this. Which, in a way, turned into a relationship with you. When I was a kid, I was just in a room by myself. And I was just yapping.
But now, I feel like, I know you.
But I get so -- I just -- I -- I don't know.
Sometimes, if you ever feel like there's a hole, in you.
That you're missing something. That you're like, I think I'm missing a piece. That other people have, you know what I mean? Because at times, there is something that keeps us from doing the most human things. And I think part of that is fear. And this is something that goes not just to the elderly, but it goes to you, and it also goes to our kids. Look, why are we -- why are we embracing fake AI friends, and talking to them, and everything else? Why are our kids on social media?
Because real face-to-face stuff, real kindness, is really risky.
It's really risky. If I step into your loneliness, it means, I have to feel my own loneliness.
You know.
Give me a sec.
Hey, how are you? You don't really want an answer. You don't want an answer. So we all say the same thing: Fine. I'm pretty good.
You're not. You're not really fine. You're not pretty good. You might be having a great day. You might be having a horrible day. But you'll say, fine. Pretty good.
And you're doing it out of a courtesy. Because you know when you ask the question, you don't want somebody to say, you know. I'm really struggling right now.
Because then you're like, oh, dear God. I've got to stop my day and sit down and talk to you. I didn't really want to know.
I -- I don't have time for this. You know what I mean?
We -- we stop being human, and we just play this little game. Because I don't want to have to rearrange my afternoon. I'm really busy.
So we -- we keep that risk, at arm's length.
And now we're eliminating it!
Because AI is always fine.
Machines never cry. They never ask for a ride to the doctor, or to the airport.
You don't have to sit with them, after -- you know, I'm waiting for some test results to come in. Would you sit with had he.
No. It doesn't have to.
It will sit with you, because it has nothing else to do.
It's part of -- we bury this human part of us, because of convenience. And it's weird.
Because our economy makes everything easy. Except, all the things that actually matter. Because I don't know if you can make those easy.
You know, we can get groceries, in an hour.
Get them delivered. I used to saw somebody -- is it Walmart or Costco? Somebody is delivering things by drone now.
Just dropping it in your backyard. I mean, wow. I mean, you can get anything. Movies in seconds. Opinions in a second. But friendships? Actual friendships? They're slow!
They're in inefficient. They're messy.
It's -- it happens in the blank space between the calendar blocks. The -- the spaces that we're -- we all have learned to hate, I guess.
We've optimized our life, to the point where love and -- falling in love, all that. Is like a bug in the system. And part of it is habit as well.
Fear and habit. I mean, our kids know, the non-stop playing on the gaming. The endless scroll, it's just hallowing out inside. They know that. They know.
But the loop is sticky. It was geared to be sticky. The short hit of engagement, you know.
Beats the slow growth of a relationship.
And I think we're all becoming experts at something that we should just at least notice. And that is, we are all experts at almost connecting.
I'm almost connected. How are you?
I'm not having a good day.
Is there anything I can do?
No. Okay. I'm almost connected.
The other part is pain. That stops us from being human, I think.
I mean, I'm a recovering alcoholic. And, boy, I know this one.
I know the hard truth.
We will not change. We can be in pain. But we will not change, until the pain becomes absolutely unbearable!
I went to -- I went to a store, to look at a bike the other day. And I sent a picture of this bike to my wife, and she said, I don't know who has my husband's phone.
But where is he?
Because I'm not going to do that -- I'm not going to -- I'm not riding a bike. I'm not riding a bike. God wouldn't let us invent cars. Okay?
The bikes.
She came home one day. And I was swimming in the pool. She was like, what is happening to you?
And I'm like, my back is killing me so bad. I've got to exercise.
Okay!
Well, that's -- at 61, that's a genius move.
Finally!
Until the pain becomes unbearable, until the comfort of staying the same is more painful than the cost of change, we don't do it.
You know, real question on AI is: With AI, will we -- will we feel the real pain that it is going to cause humanity soon enough, to change?
Or does the machine just soften the edges, just enough, that we just adapt downward? You know, just -- they're lowering the temperature, a few degrees at a time.
You never notice the temperature drop. It's just slowly.
That's the danger. That's the real danger.
Not that a chat bot runs your life.
But it -- it makes a diminished life, tolerable.
It's an anesthesia. Let's just sleep a little bit.
An imitation of companionship. That never asks for anything in return.
And never interrupts.
You know, she probably likes it more than her daughters. Because her daughter probably has edges, she doesn't like. The AI will get rid of all those edges.
And if we're not careful, the lonely will not just be alone.
They'll be alone with an elegant coping mechanism.
So, yeah. I -- I want -- I want to warn the line of humanity being blurred.
I'm going to argue.
And you'll hear a lot of this.
Personhood. Personhood is really critical, that we pay attention to this.
Presence.
Really important.
But that's only really half of the sermon, given by the man that's least qualified to preach to you. The other -- the other half is -- is a question.
