A sociological assessment of AI baby videos

The cultural production of artificial intelligence (AI) technology on social media continues to influence societies with a different trend every day. AI baby videos, which have spread rapidly on social media platforms over the last two years, are content produced through facial animation and voice synthesis. The “AI Talking Babies” trend has gone viral and is attracting great interest. While on the surface this trend appears to be based on cuteness or humor, underneath it lie social loneliness, escapism, and the emotional forms of the spectacle economy.

Currently, this phenomenon has not yet been conceptualized. When we relate AI baby videos to the concepts of sociologists, the observation by Guy Debord (1967) in The Society of the Spectacle regarding the “transformation of life into spectacle” in capitalist societies comes to mind. AI baby videos are the product of a media ecosystem where emotions have also evolved into a form of spectacle and human-machine communication has entered a new phase. And in the spectacle society with AI, there is no longer even a need for babies to be born to take the stage.

Arlie Hochschild’s (1983) theory of emotional labor is also important in this context.

In Hochschild’s terms, sympathetic feelings toward babies operate within the market. The transformation of feelings of cuteness and humor into content via AI is a way of generating interaction and revenue.

Jean Baudrillard’s (1981) concept of the “simulacrum” allows us to question the reality level of these videos. The image of a baby is an artificial simulation of the concepts of family, innocence, and love. There is no real baby present, but there is an “image of affection.” The feeling of family, innocence, and love is digitally staged and reproduced with AI. The feeling of “sweetness” underlying these videos is actually a biological reflex of our brains. Because the Kindchenschema defined by ethologist Konrad Lorenz—that is, the large eyes and round faces of babies—creates an automatic protective instinct in us.

AI babies are so cute that our brains release oxytocin while watching them. The desire for protection we feel through a biological reflex becomes a tool for gaining likes and revenue in the algorithmic order.

The rise of this trend may be a socio-psychological reaction resulting from living conditions determined by political economy. With the increase in global economic uncertainty, social polarization, inequalities, and daily anxieties, people take refuge in such content, that is, in a “lighter world.” In this context, the entertainment industry distracts people by distancing them from critical consciousness. AI baby videos are a cultural escape tool that masks the weight of reality with all their cuteness. From a sociological perspective, this content functions as a kind of “representative humor therapy”; that is, expressing the pressure of the system by laughing and with a filtered face. The form of humor localizes this escape. Cultural variations show significant differences in the global spread of this trend. While AI babies host podcasts in America and make political jokes in England, “domestic role-playing” comes to the fore in Turkey, India, and the Arab world. For example, in Turkish content, making babies speak with terms of address such as “mother,” “aunt,” or “grandfather” is a reproduction of cultural belongings. Babies speaking in phrases like “exactly, uncle” or “grandpa, put on some tea” are miniaturized versions of daily relationships. Local cultural norms and emotional habits are being transported to the digital environment. However, this “digital family aesthetic” also includes the caricature of authority and traditional roles. In this context, AI babies are carriers of social humor. With this sweet escape practice, instead of facing real problems—unemployment, economic crisis, social inequality, lack of future and insecurity, political pressure, and tension—watching a cute simulation is preferred. Baudrillard’s concept of “hyperreality” gains new meaning here: people are not watching reality, but a sweeter, more tolerable version of reality.

Sherry Turkle (2011) states that technology offers individuals “connection in solitude.”

AI baby videos are the current form of this paradox: while people connect with smiling digital babies, they are actually trying to fill their own emotional voids. In Turkle’s digital solitude, the warmth of the babies is produced by algorithms. In this context, entertaining AI babies are a digital reflection of a social need, the desire to be touched and loved.

Zygmunt Bauman’s (2000) concept of Liquid Modernity encompasses the transience of emotional reflections in the digital world. As bonds, relationships, and emotions become increasingly temporary and fluid,

AI babies offer a few seconds of “affection dopamine” without permanent bonds, and then disappear into the infinite scrolling feed.

As the real world becomes heavier, people are building lighter worlds, and AI babies are the safest inhabitants of that light world. They never cry, they never rebel, they always smile. In this context, AI baby videos are also a mirror of the social emotional structure.

In an entertaining way, they actually show a great void, people’s escape from reality, from political or economic bottlenecks.

In short, this content is cute, but it is also a “silencer”; it alleviates social tension and produces a feeling of happiness on the surface.

As a result, this trend is not just about “talking AI babies.” This is an intersection of the digital age’s economy of affection, ideology of escape, and culture of simulacra. It is a cultural sign that describes the emotional state, the form of escape, and the crisis of reality of our age. It is a powerful sociological sign showing how social emotions, loneliness, and the perception of reality are being transformed. What other trends AI will give birth to in cultural production and the consequences of these will continue to be a subject of research. I wonder, for instance; how much more artificial can our reality, emotions, and image of family become, and where will this technology take the authenticity of emotional bonds in the coming years? And even, if we become a society that smiles because of a truly equal and fair economic and political system, would we still need to watch AI babies?