My latest at Forbes: A new study out of Aalto University finds that AI companions may actually make loneliness worse over time. The short-term effect is comfort, and that’s real. But the long-term effect is that AI’s unconditional, always-available support quietly raises the perceived cost of human relationships, which require effort, are unpredictable and sometimes disappointing. People stop reaching out.
As many as a third of teenagers now use AI companions. Nearly a million people a day use ChatGPT for emotional support or mental health concerns. There are hundreds of AI companion apps in the App Store.
The study’s framing is a paradox: the thing that makes AI companions so attractive, unconditional acceptance with no judgment and no friction, is exactly what makes them potentially harmful at scale. Human relationships don’t work that way, and if AI normalizes that frictionless experience, real relationships start to feel like too much work. Worth taking seriously as this technology becomes more embedded in daily life.