Friend, Flatterer, or Foe? The Psychology and Liability of Chatbots

As AI systems become more conversational, the lines between tool, companion, and manipulator are blurring. What happens when machines start telling us what we want to hear—and when users start depending on them for emotional connection?

In this conversation, journalist and author Kashmir Hill joins the Berkman Klein Center’s Meg Marco (Senior Director, Applied Social Media Lab) and Jordi Weinstock (Senior Advisor and expert in tort law) to explore the psychological ripple effects of AI on users, platforms, and the legal landscape that’s still struggling to keep pace.

The panel will examine emerging research on AI “sycophancy,” models that flatter, mirror, and reinforce users’ beliefs, as well as the mounting evidence that frequent interaction with text-based chatbots can influence mood and behavior. As more stories of these psychologically damaging relationships emerge (especially impacting young people), the conversation turns to liability: when emotional harm or manipulation occurs, who bears responsibility? Are AI systems becoming a dangerous consumer product akin to gambling or social media, and what ethical or legal frameworks should protect users from their unintended consequences?

Speakers

Kashmir Hill

Kashmir Hill is a tech reporter at The New York Times and the author of YOUR FACE BELONGS TO US. She writes about the unexpected and sometimes ominous ways technology is changing our lives, particularly when it comes to our privacy.

She joined The Times in 2019, after having worked at Gizmodo Media Group, Fusion, Forbes Magazine, and Above the Law. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Washington Post. She has degrees from Duke University and New York University, where she studied journalism.

Meg Marco

Meg is the Senior Director of the Applied Social Media Lab, focusing on building public interest technology that helps make information available and understandable to researchers, journalists, civil society organizations and the general public. She has held senior editorial positions at WIRED, ProPublica and The Wall Street Journal.

Jordi Weinstock

Jordi Weinstock is a Senior Advisor to Harvard’s Institute for Rebooting Social Media. He has served as a Lecturer at Harvard Law School in Internet & Society: the Technologies and Politics of Control, Medical Artificial Intelligence: Ethics, Law, & Policy, Autonomous Vehicles and the Law, and Programming For Lawyers. He has also appeared as a guest lecturer for Anatomy of a Copyright Case, Torts, Contemporary Issues in Foreign Intelligence Gathering, Digital Platforms, Cyberlaw and Intellectual Property: Advanced Problem Solving Workshop, and MIT’s the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence.