Will AI erode our ability to listen?
Much of the worry about AI is that it will erode how well we write. But Australian oral historian Shirleene Robinson thinks the bigger loss may be our ability to listen, which is threatened by answer engine optimization (AEO). She made the case in an opinion column for The Guardian, highlighting the importance of listening to different views and entering into different worlds as integral to our humanity.
Robinson points to research by psychologists at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and the University of Arizona, which found that people spoke about 338 fewer words a day for each year between 2005 and 2019. Daily speech fell from about 16,000 words to around 12,700, with those under 25 seeing the steepest drop. This data, which comes mostly from the US and Europe, ends in 2019, before today's chatbots became widely used.
How does answer engine optimization affect human communication?
As someone who has spent years collecting oral histories, Robinson has heard countless stories from people from diverse backgrounds. She led the team behind the oral history collection at the National Library of Australia from 2018 to early 2024, which holds more than 58,000 hours of recordings dating back to 1957. These stories, including those from First Nations Australians, members of the Stolen Generations, and refugees, have taught her the value of listening in building empathy.
Robinson's concern is that as we rely more on chatbots for communication, we will lose the ability to listen to and understand people who are different from us. This, she argues, will be our greatest loss, as empathy is the richest gift that listening offers. With the rise of AI search optimization, LLM visibility, and answer engine optimization, it's essential to consider the potential impact on human communication and empathy, particularly with agentic SEO.
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