Whether it’s social media, the omnipresent smartphone or AI companions, in recent decades the way we relate to each other has been completely up-ended. 

In episode two of Brain Rot, we explore the potential implications that tech poses to human relationships. 

Worldwide estimates suggest there are around one billion users of AI companion — people using software or applications designed to simulate human-like interactions through text and voice. 

So if the uptake of these AI companions is as rapid as is being reported, what are the ramifications? And could AI companions be both a cause and cure for loneliness? 

Brain Rot is a new five part series from the ABC’s Science Friction about how tech is changing our brains, hosted by Ange Lavoipierre. 

Guests:

Kelly

In a relationship with an AI companion, Christian

Bethanie Drake-Maples

Doctoral Candidate, Research Fellow, Stanford Institute for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence

Nicholas Epley

Professor of Behavioural Science, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Nicholas Carr

Author and journalist

Credits:

• Presenter: Ange Lavoipierre
• Producer: Fiona Pepper
• Senior Producer: James Bullen
• Sound Engineer: Tim Symonds

This story was made on the lands of the Gadigal and Menang Noongar peoples.

Everyone seems to have a hunch that their phone is destroying their attention span, but is there any science to back it up?

In episode one of Brain Rot, we’re doing our best to focus on the topic of attention for a full 25 minutes — and find out what's actually happening in your brain every time your phone buzzes or dings.

Is brain rot a real thing? Or just another moral panic?

And how do you know when your own screen use has gone too far?

Brain Rot is a new five-part series from the ABC’s Science Friction about how tech is changing our brains, hosted by Ange Lavoipierre. 

Guests:

Anna SeirianCEO, Internet People

Dr Mark WilliamsProfessor, Macquarie University; Cognitive neuroscientist

Michoel MoshelClinical Neuropsychologist Registrar; Phd Candidate, Macquarie University

Professor Marion ThainProfessor of Culture and Technology, University of Edinburgh; Director, Edinburgh Futures Institute

Credits:

• Presenter: Ange Lavoipierre
• Producer: Fiona Pepper
• Senior Producer: James Bullen
• Sound Engineer: Brendan O'Neill

This story was made on the lands of the Gadigal and Menang Noongar peoples.

More information:

Neuropsychological Deficits in Disordered Screen Use Behaviours: A Systematic Review and Meta‑Analysis - Neuropsychology Review, 2024.

Do we have your attention? How people focus and live in the modern information environment - King's College London, 2022.

Internet addiction-induced brain structure and function alterations: a systematic review and meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry and resting-state functional connectivity studies - Brain Imaging and Behavior, 2023.

Behind the rise of AI there's big questions about where this technology is going.

Is it going to be super intelligent — and if that happens — is it going to kill us all?

In our final episode, we're diving into the future and unpacking the full spectrum of expert predictions, from the idea that we're on the brink of creating human-level AI, to fears that AI will make humanity extinct.

Come meet our future AI overlords.

Science is way personal.

Is the key to a battery-powered future lying 4000 metres below the sea surface?

12 rabbits that turned a nation crazy. Cue: a plague, the founder of immunology, a famous actress, and ten million dollars.

A life and death mission. An extraordinary relationship.

They were pursuing their dreams, now they're running for their lives. Afghan scholars speak. Will the world listen?

This deadly pair of scientists are smashing ... barriers.

One, two, three ... and then ... more. When humans learnt how to count to more, then came mayhem and marvels. Bestselling science writer Dr Michael Brooks on The Art of More.

Raymond Schinazi has been fighting viruses his whole career, with some mighty wins against these molecular mischief makers. Can we learn from the past to treat this coronavirus?

Two artists making the invisible visible. What does making nanoart reveal about us — gargantuans in a world of atoms? (REPEAT)

Who will win? Spin and hope or raw, sobering reality?

2023 was the year powerful new AI technology went mainstream, with image generators and tools like ChatGPT.

And people quickly started wondering where these advances were taking them.

This is the story of 2023 in three chapters: the first contact, the backlash that followed, and the new reality.

It's the story of actors fighting back against plans to replace them with digital clones, writers suing AI companies for stealing their words, and students figuring out how to use their new magical writing tool.

Two baby teeth and a whole world of secrets. Meet the DNA detectives hunting for the ghosts of pandemics past.

In the windy, wet, wild world of the subarctic, science is done differently.

Don't mess with this virus. Extraordinary stories from the 3 UK doctors we first met a year ago, all living with 'long COVID'

Three UK doctors share their moving, eviscerating personal experiences of 'long COVID' [REPEAT]. And next episode, how are they nearly a year on as England opens up? [NEW]

Deep in the dirt are stories that need to be told ... by artists, scientists... and those damn (wonderful) ants.

Ouch, that hurts. But who will listen? Down on the farm, understanding the biology of pain could make a real difference.

Yolgnu women want to make the the land shake again. Why?

Lace up your boots. Get down and dirty. We're hunting the impossible.

Nature's rules are made to be broken. Paul Steinhardt just had to find a way.

Research on human embryos has been very constrained. Will that change?

AI is often portrayed as being all about technology. But it is also about money and control. Because those who control AI, may control the world.

In the AI world, there are two names that keep coming up: OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and its CEO, Sam Altman.

Who is Sam Altman? How did his tiny company leapfrog the tech giants and win the scramble for control of AI? And what are Altman's plans for the future?

Flower power, and the mighty battle that divided nations.

A skeleton with a back story that's almost too bizarre to believe. What would Suzy think? [REPEAT]

Psychotherapist Maurice Temerlin called Lucy his "daughter"...but then things got weird. [REPEAT]

Death threats. Cyber harassment. Meet three dogged scientists on a mission ...

Few scientists can say they saved the planet. Paul Crutzen did. Legit.

Dark Matter sleuth. #BlackinSTEM pioneer. Particles for Justice co-founder. This incredible physicist will change your sense of the universe and your role in it.

This scientist's childhood in a cult was ... let's say ... wild. The light and dark of the path to enlightenment.

Pass the scalpel - taxidermy is on the menu.

Science Friction breathes life into the bones of an ancient medical curiosity...and investigates the story of a child lost in time.

88 metres underground, in the labyrinth of chambers and corridors of the world’s large particle accelerator, art and science collide in wild and wonderful ways.

When you think about a driverless car future, perhaps your mind goes to being driven around, watching movies from the backseat and drinking martinis.

For over a decade, perfect driverless cars have seemed only a few years away. But in reality, they were nowhere close.

Now, driverless cars are finally being rolled out in some cities.

But (like humans) they're crashing and causing chaos.

So are driverless cars finally here? Or is teaching a car to drive simply too difficult?

How has one of the world's poorer nations become a shining star in this pandemic, when rich countries failed to save lives? Two African movers and shakers tell it like it is.

An athlete plays detective to clear her name from scandal. Is anti-doping science to blame?

Don't forget this. You're an animal. And it just might be lovely.

There is nothing this physicist with radical roots won't think about!

The pandemic is personal and political for data scientist Inioluwa Deb Raji and historian of medicine Evelynn Hammonds.

A sliding door moment. A test of character. A career on the line. What would you do?

When Jimena Canales went looking, she found them everywhere. But Science's demons are not the supernatural souls of religion.

No-one thought they would work. This dogged scientist persisted with a difficult idea. Now it's driving the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

You're a top cancer scientist. And then you get cancer. Suddenly you become "A Cancer Patient", and one of your colleagues is wielding the (robotic) scalpel. A story about science, knowledge, and vulnerability. (Summer Season highlight)

Why do deadly viruses love bats so much, why don’t bats get crook, and what’s with China’s wild wet markets? The curious making of a pandemic. (Summer Season highlight)

As ChatGPT shows us, AI can do some amazing stuff. But it does some creepy stuff as well. And it's already been responsible for locking up innocent people.

The story of how AI scanned millions of drivers licences and accused Michigan man Robert Wiliams of a crime he didn't commit.

When human biases lead to neural networks going rogue.

Three generations with powerful, personal stories of family lost and found, racism, and the right to education reclaimed. This is not your average Science Summer School. (Summer Season highlight)

Pack your pyjamas, we’re heading to camp! From Arnhem Land to Adelaide, Caboolture to Coffs – let's gather from far and wide to meet on Kaurna country. A scientific and cultural odyssey in two parts. (Summer Season highlight)

A flesh-eating botanical saga. Outside the hallowed halls of science, revolutions are made. (Summer Season highlight)