TechCrunch visits MIT's Cyborg Psychology: why we can't help treating AI like humans
patpat_mit · x · 2026-10-13
TechCrunch's Amanda Silberling visits MIT's Cyborg Psychology group to explore why we humanize AI and how that changes us.
A telling scene: facing two $50,000 Unitree humanoids at CSAIL ("They'll tell you they cost $16,000 — that's a lie," a PhD student jokes), the author instinctively wants to befriend the robot and defaults to treating it like a person despite knowing it isn't sentient.
Group lead Pat Pataranutaporn's framing question: "Who are we becoming when we talk to [AI]?" The piece centers the lab's long-term question — as we become cyborgs, can we become more rather than less human.
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