On October 14, MIT professor and bestselling author Sherry Turkle will join mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn for a live conversation at All Souls Church in New York City, celebrating Turkle's new book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines. Published September 29 by Little, Brown and Company, the book examines the profound implications of artificial intelligence moving beyond productivity into the deeply human realms of companionship, empathy, advice, loneliness, and relationships.
The event marks the third conversation between Turkle and Kabat-Zinn, produced by Steve Stein and WisdomFeed Publishing. Their first two discussions, as online episodes of the StreetSmart Wisdom Podcast, delved into the collision of the analog and digital worlds, touching on artificial intelligence, empathy, mindfulness, and the future of humanity. This third conversation was timed to coincide with the publication of Artificial Intimacy, placing Turkle's new work at the center of their ongoing dialogue.
During their first StreetSmart Wisdom conversation, Turkle underscored the urgency of the moment: "This is a break the glass moment. How are we going to govern? How are we going to think about the challenge we face?" Kabat-Zinn approached the same crossroads through the lens of our analog humanity: "What is happening now is the convergence of the analog and the digital in such a way that we had best... realize the full dimensionality and potential of the analog world before... we lose it to... fake empathy from machines."
These questions are at the heart of Turkle's new book. Artificial Intimacy investigates what happens when people turn to machines not just for tasks, but for forms of companionship, counsel, and emotional connection once exclusively associated with human relationships. In that earlier conversation, Turkle posed a question that has become increasingly central as conversational AI enters everyday life: "The question for me is, is pretend empathy enough? And how do we as people who have this extraordinary gift for real empathy because of... the arc of a human life... How do we connect?"
After two online conversations, Turkle and Kabat-Zinn will meet in person at 80th Street and Lexington Avenue, bringing their dialogue literally to street level in New York City, before a live audience and via livestream. The October 14 event brings together Turkle's decades of research into our evolving relationship with technology and Kabat-Zinn's decades of work on mindfulness, awareness, and presence. Turkle will sign copies of Artificial Intimacy following the program.
Why does this matter? As AI systems become more sophisticated, they increasingly simulate empathy and companionship, raising critical questions about authenticity, mental health, and the fabric of human connection. Turkle and Kabat-Zinn are uniquely positioned to address these concerns: Turkle, the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, has spent decades studying the psychology of digital life; Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), has championed mindful presence as an antidote to distraction. Their conversation promises to illuminate the stakes of allowing machines to meet emotional needs, and to challenge us to preserve real empathy in an age of artificial intimacy.
WisdomFeed Publishing extends special thanks to All Souls for opening its sanctuary to this conversation and the New York community. For information and registration, visit https://wisdomfeed.thrivecart.com/artificial-intimacy/.
