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I sometimes forget that I work in tech, ignoring different headlines as boring and instead opting to read about more compelling matters. At Automattic, where I work, slack has been ablaze with the glorious ChatGPT. I’ll let you google the details but at its simplest it’s a AI-powered chat bot. After having it write some very silly poems for a warm up, I posed the question: “What makes surrogacy problematic?”

There are several issues that can make surrogacy problematic:

1. Ethical concerns: Surrogacy raises questions about the rights of the surrogate mother and the potential exploitation of her body.
2. Legal complexities: Surrogacy agreements can be difficult to enforce, and the laws surrounding surrogacy vary greatly from one country to another.
3. Emotional difficulties: The surrogate mother may face emotional challenges as she carries a child for someone else and must give it up after birth.
4. Financial burden: Surrogacy can be an expensive process, and many surrogates may be unable to afford the costs.
5. Social stigma: Surrogacy is often viewed as taboo and can be a source of social stigma for both the surrogate mother and the intended parents.

Here’s a screenshot I immediately took after it spit this out:

What about the children born from surrogacy? What about the entire premise of why surrogacy is done? Out of curiosity as I wrote this post, I circled back to the acclaimed AI to ask “How should kids born through surrogacy feel about surrogacy?”

Kids born through surrogacy should feel grateful and appreciative of the surrogacy process that allowed them to be born. They should also feel thankful and respect for the surrogate who carried and gave birth to them. Surrogacy can be a complex and emotionally charged process, but it ultimately allows for the creation of families and the birth of children.

It seems we have a ways to go, both as a society and within AI.