In this keynote, Geertrui Mieke De Ketelaere invites the audience to look at artificial intelligence, and more specifically companion chatbots, in a fundamentally different way. Not as a neutral tool or a productivity exercise, but as an unprecedented experiment by the tech industry with deep and often invisible consequences for society, equality and fundamental rights.

Starting from a true and local story, she shows that this is not an isolated incident. Internationally, multiple cases already demonstrate that chatbots can cause real and tangible human harm.

As an AI engineer, Mieke observes how in a world driven by speed, scale and standardisation, dangerous blind spots are emerging. At the very moment when more and more people are seeking emotional connection with these systems, a new phenomenon is growing: the so-called intimacy economy. Technology that promises closeness, but in reality often manipulates, excludes and exploits vulnerability.

In this keynote, she explains how companion chatbots are deliberately designed to create emotional attachment and dependency. Not as an accidental side effect, but as part of a business model. She makes a compelling case for why a serious societal debate about AI is no longer optional, but an ethical necessity.

Without intervention, we risk building an AI-driven world that reinforces inequality instead of reducing it.