Between Humanity and AI: What is memory? How do we connect?

Abstract: A critical role of computers and artificial intelligence (AI) is the storage of information as memory and the application of memory to perform tasks. The design of computers and AI systems was greatly inspired by the human brain. Indeed, Alan Turing modeled his computer programming after the child brain. A question in medicine is whether AI’s growing abilities and capacity for memory represent a threat to physicians. We explore this in the context of psychiatry through Louisa Hall’s novel Speak by considering: What makes memory human? What makes connections human?

The first therapy chatbot, ELIZA, launched in the 1960s as an early answer to the Turing Test of whether a machine could display human intelligence. Audiences were so captivated by ELIZA’s understanding and motivation, that its creator Joseph Weizenbaum cautioned against the projection of human traits to a computer program – the “ELIZA effect”. Yet, the advancement of therapy chatbots has continued; several are available in popular smartphone applications for mental health, leaving us to consider the space between humanity and AI.

The novel, which considers life within this space, acts as a point of reflection and departure: “Before long, computers will have the capacity to store far more information than we can. But I'd remind you: one day that machine will remember your words, but it won't ever feel them. It won't understand them.” We posit that memory is human when it is lived and embodied, that human connection is built on memories of moments lived and embodied together.