Artificial Intelligence: Impact on Human Relationships and Society

Lord Nagaraju Excerpts

Friday 5th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nagaraju (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the most reverend Primate for bringing this timely debate. I declare my interests as a technology consultant, an adviser on AI policy and a director of companies and organisations involved in AI and AI governance.

I support this Motion because Al is not merely another tool; it is increasingly a mediator of work, knowledge, attention and relationships. Unlike earlier technologies, AI moves at digital speed and can spread at very low marginal cost through existing digital infrastructure, entering our phones, homes, classrooms, hospitals and friendships, automating not only labour but judgment, creativity, companionship and trust.

A small number of firms and countries now command many of the models and much of the compute and data on which others increasingly rely on. This makes AI not only an economic race but a governance challenge. Like all nations, we cannot afford to fall behind. AI will be central to productivity, public service reform and national competitiveness. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that around 40% of UK occupations are exposed to AI, with most likely to be complemented rather than replaced. We must therefore be ambitious, innovative and open to enterprise.

Innovation and responsibility are not opposites: trustworthy AI should become one of Britain’s competitive strengths. The dilemma is clear: move too slowly, and we risk economic decline and dependence; move too quickly, and we might embed systems that erode dignity, privacy, fairness and trust. Governance must include technologists and investors, but must not be left to them alone. Ethicists, teachers, parents, clinicians, workers, entrepreneurs, civil society, young people and parliamentarians must all have a voice.

AI may deepen existing divides. Countries and companies with compute, data, talent and capital will shape the terms of use. Communities with access to AI-enhanced education, healthcare and employment may pull ahead, while those exposed mainly to surveillance, misinformation or job disruption may fall further behind. Successful companies create jobs, wealth, tools and opportunity. But democracy must be capable of scrutinising concentrations of economic, informational and infrastructural power moving at this speed.

More than half the people in the UK aged 16 and over use generative AI. Around one in eight users reports using AI as someone to talk to or as a friend—and the figure is even higher in the United States. Evidence on long-term effects is still limited, but the risk is clear. Digital platforms already shape identity and social habits, especially among young people, but generative AI goes further. It talks back, remembers, flatters and can simulate intimacy. Young people may increasingly turn to it for advice, reassurance and help with social situations: roles once shaped by parents, peers and teachers. AI companions do not require reciprocity. Real relationships involve patience, disagreement and obligation. We should not discover too late that human development has been reshaped by systems that simulate care without sharing responsibility.

AI’s benefits are real. In the NHS, AI can reduce administrative burdens, triage referrals, predict missed appointments and support cancer screening. In education, it can help teachers plan lessons and create resources—though it must not weaken teacher-pupil relationships or critical thinking. However, we must also plan for the environmental cost. AI data centres need significant electricity and water. That is not an argument against AI infrastructure, but for building it with resilient energy and water planning from the start.

Some of these questions cannot be answered within our borders alone. In July, the United Nations will host the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, which I hope to attend. The UK should help shape global rules that are innovative, entrepreneurial and at the same time democratic, humane and inclusive. The questions raised by artificial intelligence are not only technical and economic; they are about what kind of society we wish to live in, how work is valued, how children learn and form relationships, and how innovation and enterprise can serve the common good.

I welcome the Government’s efforts to place the UK at the forefront of safe and responsible AI. As that work develops, I hope Ministers will continue to consider AI’s wider social impacts, including on children, loneliness, education, work, public services, competition and democratic trust, and ensure that Parliament remains engaged in that conversation. The Motion before us invites us to take these questions seriously and to bring together expertise from across society. I support it wholeheartedly, and hope this debate contributes to the Government’s wider work, and to the national and international conversation about what AI is, whom it serves and how it can be directed towards the common good.