Google is working on an AI 'life coach' which will help you make major life decisions, it seems

We have all faced difficult life decisions. During testing times, most of us would have wished for someone to tell us what the right thing to do is. What if there was an AI that could help you make life decisions? That's what one of the units at Google's Deep Mind is currently working on, according to a report. 

• Google's Deep Mind is working on generative AI on 21 different life skills from specialised medical fields to hobby suggestions, according to a report in the New York Times. 
• The new chatbot is essentially supposed to work as an AI therapist or a life coach (more human jobs under threat?). 
• Google is testing the chatbot on providing personalised life advice to users on everything from relationship problems to career counseling. 
• The NYT report also states that over 100 experts across various fields are engaged in testing the AI's abilities. 

How would it work?

One of the examples cited in the NYT report is how AI can solve personal conflicts: 

Like all generative AI, the 'life coach' AI being tested by Google relies on vast amounts of data, personal data. 

Red flags

• Google's own AI safety specialists have raised several issues in developing such an assistant. An AI that helps make major life decisions would be detrimental to the user's agency, sense of self, and overall well-being. 
• Already, people are using generative AI and personal chatbots as therapists despite developers warning against such use. 
• There have been cases where AI has spewed out harmful information to vulnerable users like Ameican NGO National Eating Disorder Association's Tessa chatbot which gave harmful eating disorder advice. 
• A Belgian man was driven to suicide after spending days chatting with an AI bot, according to a report. 
• Though AI is not sentient and perhaps will never be, humans will unwittingly attach human emotions to the AI assistants. And relying on AI to make major life decisions would definitely prove to be problematic. 
• There is also the concern of tech giants harvesting vast amounts of deeply personal data on individuals. 

Google isn't releasing the 'life coach' AI anytime soon and is aware of the concerns related to it. But there is definitely demand for an AI life coach.