---
id: "entity-sherry-turkle"
type: "entity"
entityType: "person"
canonicalName: "Sherry Turkle"
aliases: []
source_timestamps: ["§ Warning Signs Ahead"]
tags: ["researcher", "technology-critic", "cited-authority"]
related: ["concept-existential-loneliness", "quote-helpful-ghost"]
sources: ["adoption"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-adoption"
originDay: 9
articleStem: "hbr-sig-53-ai-personal-support-risky"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/employees-are-relying-on-ai-for-personal-support-thats-risky"
sourceTitle: "Employees Are Relying on AI for Personal Support. That’s Risky."
---
# Sherry Turkle

**Profile:** An MIT professor and technologist, leading scholar and critic on human–technology relationships; author of *Alone Together* and *Reclaiming Conversation*.

**Role in this source:** Cited as an authority warning about the threat to humanity that accompanies an overreliance on **artificial forms of intimacy** — supporting the concept of [[concept-existential-loneliness]] and the "helpful ghost" framing of [[quote-helpful-ghost]].

**Enrichment context:** Turkle's canonical affiliations include the MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society and her personal site (sherryturkle.com). Her long-standing critique is that robotic and digital companions simulate caring without actually caring — offering "the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship" — which can deepen rather than relieve loneliness.