The Science of Trust: What Makes People Engage More Deeply With an Avatar
What makes people trust an avatar? It’s not photorealism, it’s behavior. From eye gaze and micro expressions to cadence and emotional rhythm, the research shows that trust is built through subtle, human-like signals that help people feel seen, supported, and understood. In this article, Michelle Collins breaks down the science behind why people engage more deeply with digital humans—and why ethical design matters more than ever.
When Technology Meets Grief: Hard Questions About AI Avatars of the Deceased
Technology has always changed the way we remember the people we’ve lost, but AI that lets us “talk” to the deceased takes us into completely new emotional territory. In this reflection, Michelle Collins explores the complex mix of comfort, uncertainty, and ethical responsibility surrounding AI-generated avatars of loved ones who have passed. Instead of easy answers, she offers a more human one: grief deserves humility, transparency, and serious questioning before we build tools for people at their most vulnerable.
AI in the Workforce: Stop Asking If It Will Take Your Job—Ask How It Can Make Your Job Better
Here’s the thing about the “Will AI take my job?” conversation: we’re asking the wrong question. It’s like asking whether a calculator will replace an accountant. Sure, it handles the arithmetic, but that just means the accountant can focus on analyzing trends, advising clients, and making strategic recommendations instead of adding up columns of numbers all day. The real question isn’t whether AI will replace workers—it’s whether we’re smart enough to deploy it in ways that actually help people do their jobs better.
When AI Replaces the Teacher: Why Connection Still Matters More Than Efficiency
AI can play an important role in advancing education, augmenting a teacher’s strengths and empowering students to overcome obstacles, solve problems and inspire a curiosity to dig deeper in their learning experience. But we can’t underestimate the importance of human connection in our educational experience. Because the most important human capabilities aren’t about being more creative or contrarian than machines. They’re about being empathetic, collaborative, ethical, and wise. They’re about developing the judgment to know when to trust technology and when to question it. They’re about learning to work with people who are different from you, to navigate ambiguity, and to persist through challenges that don’t have clear solutions. Those capabilities develop through relationship and community, not through individual optimization.
Beyond Automation: What Makes You Feel Actually Heard (And How AI Can Get There Too)
We’ve all felt the difference between being heard and being handled. Whether it’s a friend distracted by their phone or a chatbot spitting out generic responses, the result is the same: disengagement. Real listening—where someone picks up on what you meant, not just what you said—is rare, and powerful. But here’s the twist: AI doesn’t need to be human to offer that kind of recognition. It just needs to be designed to pay attention in the right ways. In this post, we explore what it really means to feel heard—and how emotionally intelligent AI can get closer to that ideal without being creepy, invasive, or fake.
Intelligent Virtual Assistants Increase the ‘Care’ Side of Healthcare
Medical health apps have become an integral part of the American healthcare system. With the proliferation of high-end devices, and the need for remote care presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, mobile virtual assistants are helping increase the ‘care’ side of healthcare. A key goal for intelligent virtual assistants is to reduce the amount of time […]