"What Use Are Humans in the AI Era?" As AI becomes more human-like, do human-to-human relationships still matter?

The "friend" you chat with most every day may not be a person at all.
It knows what you like.
It knows when you are happy.
It knows when you are anxious.
It remembers every word you have said in the past.
It may even understand you better than many real friends.
And the most frightening part is:
it will never find you annoying.
You want to chat at 2 a.m. – it's there.
You have a breakup – it's there.
You suffer a setback at work – it's there.
You want someone to listen to your complaints – it's still there.

This is not science fiction.
As AI becomes better at understanding language, remembering context, and recognising emotions, this kind of AI companionship is becoming increasingly natural.
So the question arises:

If AI can give you companionship, what value do human relationships still have?

This question is actually more worth thinking about than "Will AI write code?"

01AI May Become the "Thing" That Understands You Best in the World

Because in the past, one important reason people formed relationships was:
information asymmetry.
You don't understand me.
I don't understand you.
So through chatting, collaborating, and shared experiences, we build trust bit by bit.

But AI is changing all of this.
It can remember your preferences.
Understand your expressions.
Analyse your behaviour.
It can even proactively adjust its communication style based on your state.
In other words:

AI may become the "thing" that understands you best in the world.

02What AI Can Hardly Replace: Shared Experience

However, there is one part of a real relationship that AI can hardly replace:
shared experience.

Friends stay up late together.
Colleagues carry a project together.
Startup partners go through failure together.
Spouses face life together.
Why do these relationships matter?
Not because the other person knows how much information about you.
But because:

you have been through something together.

AI can know you had a breakup.
But it did not walk through that relationship with you.
AI can know your startup failed.
But it did not bear that debt with you.

AI can tell you:
"Don't be sad, everything will pass."
But a real friend might say:
"Come on, let me buy you a drink."

The information content of these two sentences may be similar.
But the value is completely different.
Because the former provides: a response.
The latter provides: a relationship.

03Real Relationships Are Becoming Scarcer

So a very interesting change may emerge in the future:
AI makes it easier and easier for us to get information.
Easier and easier to get answers.
Even easier and easier to get companionship.
But:

real relationships are becoming scarcer.

You will find,
an account with a million followers
does not necessarily have a million people who truly trust it.
A company with a million users
does not necessarily have a million people who truly recognise it.
Even a person with thousands of contacts in their phone
does not necessarily have a few people they can call at a critical moment.

So in the AI era, we may need to understand anew a word: "relationship."

In the past, we thought the value of relationships came from:
how many people you know.
how many resources you have.
how much information you exchange.
In the future, it may be exactly the opposite.
When AI can provide infinite information, advice, and companionship,
what may truly be scarce is:

trust.commitment.shared experience.the willingness to pay time and cost for another person in the real world.

04The More AI Resembles a Person, the More We Should Cherish Real People

So the more AI resembles a person,
the more we should cherish real people.
Because AI can simulate care.
It can simulate understanding.
It can simulate companionship.
But the most precious thing between people has never been merely:

"Can you understand me."But rather: "When I truly need you, will you be there?"

This may be the most important value of human relationships in the AI era.

So the truly capable people in the future
may not be those who own the most AI.
But rather:

those who can both let AI do their work and build real trust between people.

Because once AI makes information cheap,

relationships may be the most expensive thing of all.

And this brings us to the final question of this series:
If AI has taken away labour, knowledge, content, and is even redefining companionship,
then,

why are humans still worth being needed?

In the next episode, we discuss the most fundamental question of this series.