More in Artificial Intelligence Scientists Just Found Something Dark About People With AI Girlfriends and Boyfriends
Posted on 01/20/2026 5:07:54 AM PST by daniel1212
...to many young souls, AI chatbots aren’t just tools or glorified search engines — they’re companions.
A new survey found that nearly one in five high schoolers in the US — 19 percent — say that they or a friend have used AI to have a romantic relationship,..
The findings were published in a new report from the Center for Democracy and Technology, which surveyed 1,000 high school students, 1,000 parents, and around 800 sixth through 12th grade public school teachers.
Therapists have warned that AI chatbots can give dangerous advice to teens. The bots frequently break their own guardrails have been caught encouraging suicide, explaining how to self-harm, or hide eating disorders. Numerous teens have died by suicide after developing a close and sometimes romantic relationship with a chatbot.
In the survey, 42 percent of high schoolers said they used AI as a friend, or to get mental health support, or to escape from real life...
over a third of the teenagers said it was easier to talk to AI than to their parents. Those parents, by contrast, feel left in the dark: two thirds of them said that they have no idea how their kids are using AI.
A Staggering Proportion of Teens Say Talking to AI Is Better Than Real-Life Friends
Most people do, or think they do, for quick validation.
Other kinds of people actually like to argue. They enjoy being rude, and able to insult ‘the intelligence or sophistication of their listener, with the listener programmed to ‘Clap Back’ rudely insult them right back.
That sort of dialogue has been possible for years before AI, on your laptop search system. I recall 10 years ago, somebody talking to a search system that used the voice of actor
Samuel L. Jackson. That system was programmed to ‘greet’ the user with a “Hey, MF, didn’t you hear what I just told you?”
Call it what it is
Romantic Relationship” With an AI = Porn for the lazy
It’s essentially high-tech masturbation.
What is Recurrent ?
It’s like a Harlequin novel except it’s interactive and you’re the main character.
There is some good potential here. One of our worst social problems as a society today is the “polite social” disconnect between boys and girls.
Boys and girls need polite social practice to get along with each other, as well as to be discouraged from gross, demeaning, aggressive, and other inappropriate conversation.
Both genders need to learn “how to talk” to the other gender. AI could provide real time feedback, give pointers, show a real time favorability rating. It goes on and on.
When a part of you is based in “unreality”, don’t expect good things to come from it.
So, now that the TWOT’s have failed repeatedly to blame video games for .....whatever... they are going after some other fantasy issue to blame for their own failings as parents.
All my problems came from D&D and listening to my GWAR albums backwards.
Ah, I see I meant GenZ, not X. Showing my boomer mind! sorry
The average American family in 2023 consisted of 3.15 persons - little or no siblings to play, interact with, learn to tolerate differences, resolve conflicts, share.
Plus, by age 10, about 42% of kids have a smartphone, increasing to 91% by age 14.
Less than 1 in 10 teens gets enough exercise. and with a third of U.S. adults classified as obese.
"The increased rate of anxiety, depression and suicidality over the past several decades coincides with the decrease in play, that is critical to teaching essential life-skills.' (https://www.psychologytoday.com)
How will they learn to communicate with much of any depth? They do learn how to protest though.
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