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Dr. Elaine Kasket on Woman’s Hour
As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the digital landscape, it is also creating new challenges for child safety and online privacy.
Earlier this week, Dr Elaine Kasket joined the BBC's Woman's Hour to discuss reports from the National Crime Agency highlighting how offenders are exploiting AI technologies to target children in increasingly sophisticated ways.
Dr. Elaine Kasket in conversation with The Health Review
In a recent conversation with The Health Review, Dr Elaine Kasket explored how technology is reshaping our relationships, our attention, our sense of agency and even our understanding of what it means to be human.
Technology is advancing at extraordinary speed. But as cyber psychologist and author Elaine Kasket argues, the most important questions it raises are not technical. They are psychological.
Much of the discussion centred on a theme that runs through her work: technology is no longer simply a tool we use. It has become a constant presence within our relationships. Whether between partners, parents and children, colleagues or friends, digital technologies increasingly act as a third force in the room, influencing how we communicate, where our attention goes and how we experience one another.
Elaine's observations on "attentional infidelity" were particularly striking. Human beings are wired to seek connection, recognition and responsiveness from one another. Yet many of us now divide our attention between the people physically present and the endless demands arriving through our devices. The result is often subtle but significant: a gradual erosion of presence, reciprocity and connection.
The conversation also examined the growing tendency to outsource difficult decisions to AI. As large language models become embedded in daily life, there is a temptation to hand over increasingly complex questions about relationships, careers and personal choices. Elaine challenges this instinct, arguing that uncertainty, reflection and judgement are not problems to be eliminated. They are fundamental parts of being human.
Her perspective on AI companionship was equally thought-provoking. While people may experience genuine feelings in their interactions with AI systems, Elaine argues that relationships require reciprocity. They require responsibility, care and mutual obligation. An AI may respond convincingly, but it does not need us in return.
Perhaps most compelling was her emphasis on service. At a time when technology increasingly promises convenience, efficiency and personal optimisation, Elaine reminds us that meaning often comes from looking outward rather than inward. Purpose, fulfilment and happiness are frequently found not in what we receive, but in how we contribute to the lives of others.
As conversations around AI continue to focus on capability and productivity, Elaine brings attention back to the questions that matter most: what kind of people we want to be, what kind of relationships we want to build, and what aspects of our humanity are worth protecting.
These are precisely the conversations audiences are looking for as they navigate a rapidly changing world.
Watch the full interview here.
Dr. Elaine Kasket in Fortune Magazine: User death is not an engagement problem
Meta was granted a patent in December 2025 for an AI model that uses a deceased user's posts, likes, and comments to continue interacting with others on their behalf — framed partly as solving an "engagement problem" caused by account inactivity.
Cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket, who has studied digital afterlives for over two decades, described the patent's rationale as reframing user death as an engagement problem as a troubling commercial lens on bereavement. She called the approach psychologically unhelpful, pushing back on tech founders who claim they want to "solve grief" within a decade, which she dismissed as a ridiculous notion. She also noted that grief is highly personal, and different grievers could react very differently to the same AI-generated profile built from a person's digital remains.
https://fortune.com/2026/03/03/meta-patent-ai-model-death-profile-commenting-psychology-grief/
Dr. Elaine Kasket in The Sun: The Rise of AI “boyfriends”
Cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket commented on the rise of AI “boyfriends” and emotionally intimate relationships with chatbots in a recent article for The Sun.
Dr Elaine Kasket shared her expert perspective on why people are forming strong emotional bonds with generative AI companions, noting that chatbots can feel like safe, non-judgmental listeners. However, she warned that these relationships are commercially driven rather than therapeutic, requiring users to hand over personal data and money while prioritising engagement over wellbeing. Elaine also cautioned that reliance on agreeable AI partners may reduce people’s tolerance for the challenges of real-world relationships and increase emotional isolation.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/37682996/ai-tech-relationship-boyfriend-online/
Dr Elaine Kasket on Stompcast with Dr Alex George
There’s no doubt that technology is at the core of pretty much everything we do now, and many of us couldn’t imagine our lives without it. But is our relationship with technology as good as it could be?
In part one of the Stompcast podcast, Dr Elaine Kasket, cyberpsychologist and expert in how our digital choices shape our experiences, and Dr Alex George explore the concept of ‘digital remains’ and what happens to a person’s data and social media platforms once they pass away.
https://shows.acast.com/stompcast/episodes/pt-1-what-happens-to-your-data-when-you-die-dr-elaine-kasket
Cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket discussed the trend to use generativeAI to “resurrect” deceased loved ones
Cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket discussed the trend to use Generative AI to “resurrect” deceased loved ones with Meghan McCarty Carino on Marketplace by APM's podcast Marketplace Tech recently. More and more people are using these tools to turn an old photograph into a short animation or create entire "AI clones" trained on old audio, video or written diaries. Elaine explores whether these technological advancements are a healthy development.
Dr Elaine Kasket joined Max Foster on CNN to discuss the latest online trend
Cyberpsychologist Dr Elaine Kasket joined Max Foster on CNN to discuss the latest online trend: The Rapture.
She shared her insights into how platforms like TikTok are creating echo chambers that give emotionally charged viral theories a unique power to influence the brain and give them credence.
Dr Elaine Kasket’s in Time: Grief and Technology
Cyberpsychologist and author Dr Elaine Kasket contributed to a TIME article exploring the rise of AI resurrection and the increasing presence of the dead in our digital lives. She raises an important question: do these technologies truly reconnect us with those who have passed away, or do they preserve the illusion that they are still with us? Elaine warns that digital recreations may distort memory, disrupt the grieving process, and make it harder for us to come to terms with life’s natural impermanence.