One of my first memories involves accidentally killing a robot. I was five years old when Tamagotchis first launched globally and not much older when my first and last one met an untimely end in a glass of milk. I swear I can still remember the plonk of the keychain-sized device digital pet as it sank into the drink—and, I can picture how once I fished it back out, its onscreen routine of pooping and eating got glitchy and degraded until it finally succumbed to dairy-related complications.

According to today’s guest, it’s not surprising that I remember this moment so vividly. Sherry Turkle, founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, says that even these primitive digital companions managed to make us treat them like, well, companions: we cared about their well-being and felt, however unconsciously, like they cared for us in return.

But what happens when—instead of a pixelated little pet that guilts you into providing pixelated little treats and clearing away pixelated little poops—you’re faced with digital agents designed to replace actual humans in the world around you?

That question is the heart of Sherry’s upcoming book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines. By spending more and more time interacting with chatbots that offer soulless approximations of warmth and empathy, she argues, we’re setting ourselves up to forget what real humanity feels like.

She recently sat down with SciAm’s books and culture lead, Bri Kane, to discuss how the advent of artificial intimacy is warping actual human behavior—and what we can do to reclaim our collective humanity. Here’s their conversation.