Artificial Intelligence: Impact on Human Relationships and Society

Lord Alderdice Excerpts

Friday 5th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Alderdice (LD)]

My Lords, like the previous two speakers, I thank the most reverend Primate for choosing this topic for her day’s debate. As has already been said, it is quite striking that she chose it, as His Holiness the Pope also chose it for his first encyclical, because it is a matter of great concern.

Before I come to the concerns, I want to emphasise that there is a very positive dimension to all this. Technological development has brought us huge benefits in communication, in medicine, and in so many aspects of our lives. But sometimes we forget that, when we talk about artificial intelligence, we are talking about something knowledge based and cognitive, and human intelligence is something different from that. Human intelligence involves the emotional dimension of us, and it is that very fact which enables us to operate in a different kind of way. So rather than simply reflecting on the challenges and dangers associated with technology—of course, it has brought us many benefits, but also many dangers—as we look at things like the environmental crisis or the potential for nuclear holocaust, we should note that these have also been brought to us by technological development, and we need always to manage and control it.

As we travel across London, we may reflect on the fact that driving in a car nowadays is not much quicker than a horse-drawn carriage was 100 years ago. Even so, we have the capacity for speed, so we have to regulate speed. Why? It is not because speed is bad, but because human beings can react only at a certain speed and a certain rate. We can adapt ourselves only at a certain rate. There are limitations to being a human being, as well as advantages and benefits.

Sometimes, the benefits lead us to difficulties. I was a psychiatrist for a long time and dealt with young people with addictions for a period. One reason that medications become addictive is not that they are unsuccessful but precisely that they are extremely successful, at, for example, getting rid of anxiety. Therefore, people quickly get used to reducing their level of anxiety with medication rather than with psychological mechanisms and with relationships with other people. It is the very effectiveness of one dimension of thinking that makes this dangerous for us.

If we look at the human dimension, we need to understand that, for example, speed and a response, albeit sometimes not a correct response, is not something that human beings function well with. When we lose someone, we need a period of time to manage our grief in relation with others. This is not a component of artificial intelligence. In order that we have the possibility of hope, we need to understand the possibility of frustration and the time it takes to accomplish things.

The parents who create some of the greatest problems for young people nowadays are not only those who do not give them appropriate attention but those who give them too much attention. Winnicott devised the idea of “good enough” parenting. One sees many parents who react immediately to children and respond to every wish that they have, without considering other possibilities, and do not understand that this is harmful to their young people because it does not help them to develop the capacity to deal patiently with problems, reflect upon them, deal with grief and find hope emerging. None of these are qualities that artificial intelligence either has or has the capacity to develop.

I therefore make an appeal that, as we talk about artificial intelligence, we should understand it to be something fundamentally different from how we function as human beings. The more deeply we can understand how we function as individuals and as communities of people, the better position we will be in to address the challenges that arise from artificial intelligence.

It is not just that these are problems for the future. It is absolutely clear that we already face many difficulties that emerge from the fact that young people now look around and see a world where there is environmental threat, where there is the possibility of nuclear war and where they do not understand how they are going to deal with artificial intelligence. We ought to reflect on the epidemic of adolescent mental health problems, ADHD and autism. Are these things not related to anything? Are they only better diagnoses, or are there things happening that are making life difficult for the next generation?