Anthropomorphic technology in everyday life: focus on chatbots and impacts on mental health

Chatbots are widely used by business in everyday life to interact with consumers in e-commerce, social networking, education, and government settings. Anthropomorphism is a fundamental aspect of chatbot design and implementation, and increases the interaction of chatbots with humans. As part of the recent expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, chatbots incorporated AI to engage more personally with consumers. The anthropomorphic characteristics of chatbots, including both visual appearance and language, influence the interaction of chatbots with humans in diverse ways that may have both positive and negative consequences. The purpose of this review is to increase physician awareness of the use of chatbots which use AI to enhance anthropomorphism. Consumers routinely anthropomorphize products including chatbots. Physicians need to be aware of the wide-ranging and routine use of chatbots, and the importance of anthropomorphism in chatbot design and implementation. Physicians also need to recognize potential negative consequences of anthropomorphism of chatbots on mental health.