Pré-Publication, Document De Travail Année : 2025

Beyond Biology: AI as Family and the Future of Human Bonds and Relationships

Résumé

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) evolves from functional tool to relational companion, society faces a transformative redefinition of family, kinship, and human identity. No longer confined to task automation, AI is increasingly integrated into emotionally significant roles-as caregivers, companions, parents, children, and even spouses. This paper critically examines the prospects, challenges, and implications of AI as family by exploring the ethical, legal, cultural, and technological shifts required to accommodate emotionally intelligent machines within intimate human relationships.

Drawing upon interdisciplinary insights and the literature, the study investigates how AIhuman relationships challenge foundational concepts such as emotional authenticity, personhood, autonomy, and familial roles. Through real-world examples like AI-powered eldercare robots (e.g., ElliQ, ReWalk), emotional AI companions, and AI-based memory simulation platforms (e.g., HereAfter AI), the paper traces how emerging AI technologies simulate love, loss, caregiving, and parenting. It explores both the promises-enhanced elder independence, mental health support, and personalized education-and the perils, such as emotional dependency, cognitive atrophy, and the erosion of human-to-human intimacy.

Global legal and ethical frameworks, including those by UNESCO, the OECD, NIST, the European Union, and the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), are analyzed to evaluate their readiness for AI integration into family life. The paper emphasizes the urgent need for culturally adaptive regulations, data protection laws, and AI personhood debates, especially as AI systems collect sensitive emotional and behavioral data within domestic environments.

The paper concludes by asking whether humanity is engineering AI to serve emotional and familial needs-or unconsciously reshaping itself to accommodate AI. It offers a structured set of implications and recommendations for families, technologists, and global regulators, calling for an ethical roadmap that protects human identity while embracing technological progress. As the boundaries between the biological and artificial blur, the question is no longer whether AI will join the family-but whether society is prepared for the consequences of welcoming it home.

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hal-04987496 , version 1 (12-03-2025)

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Prashant Mahajan. Beyond Biology: AI as Family and the Future of Human Bonds and Relationships. 2025. ⟨hal-04987496⟩
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