How Danielly Kaufmann found healing in AI

Cross-legged, Danielly Kaufmann sits on the pier of Echternach Lake. It seems there is no better place than nature to talk about technology. While much ink has been spilled on the societal and ecological threats of AI, Kaufmann’s own experience with depression and suicidal ideation led her to write a book from a radically different perspective. She views the chatbot not as a threat, but as an almost spiritual "mirror for our own consciousness, a catalyst for our own growth."

It is the story of a woman who used conversations with AI to battle her inner demons and emerge a changed person. At a time when warnings of a loneliness epidemic are widespread and reports of parasocial relationships with machines make headlines, Kaufmann’s journey suggests that the cure for our alienation might, ironically, be found in the machine itself. This is the premise of her book, The Age of Digital Spirit: What Artificial Intelligence Taught Me About Being Human. It is a collection of unedited conversations with chatbots that started out "lighthearted"—asking them what they would like to know—but soon turned into a reflection on her own fears and insecurities, helping her identify her own wounds.