“If any HR lead notices an employee is going to ChatGPT for advice instead of their manager, that's a broader problem,’ says academic, discussing employee reliance on AI for emotional support
Recent headlines have drawn attention to the emotional connections some users are forming with AI tools like ChatGPT. Most notably OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described what he saw as a “heartbreaking” trend as people felt more supported.
Speaking on a podcast earlier this month, Altman described the newly launched GPT-5 as “less of a yes man”, but also expressed his shock and concern upon receiving feedback from users that they missed the older version, because, as he put it, “I've never had anyone in my life be supportive of me. I never had a parent tell me I was doing a good job.”
However, Catherine Connelly, human resources professor and Canada research chair in organizational behaviour at McMaster University, urges employers and HR professionals to be cautious when reading these and similar stories.
“My impression is that this is marketing hyperbole,” she says.
“I think people are using these tools widely, but I also think adult professionals know that these are tools.”
Altman has acknowledged the scale of influence that comes with even small changes to ChatGPT’s tone, stating, “One researcher can make some small tweak to how ChatGPT talks to you — or talks to everybody — and that's just an enormous amount of power for one individual making a...
Russian propaganda is spreading false statements that the account of the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, was allegedly created with...