Institutions face rising mental health needs as students turn to AI for comfort, connection, and advice. Colleges and universities must consider what changes when students open up to AI chatbots instead of people. A nonprofit focused on meaningful human connection surveyed nearly 2,400 young people ages 13 to 24 to understand real usage patterns. The survey examined AI use beyond schoolwork, including emotional support such as venting about a bad day and relationship advice. It also examined how young people engage with AI characters, using that term to reflect how participants describe their interactions rather than relying on “companion” language common in public discourse.
"We’re seeing lots of reports, lots of research and, of course, lots of news about the way young people are using AI, but how much of that is actually grounded in what they're doing and how they're talking about it? The Rithm Project set out to try to answer this question back in the fall of last year, and we surveyed almost 2,400 young people between the ages of 13 and 24."
"We really asked them about two sets of things. The first was how they are using AI, not just for school or homework, but also for things like emotional support-venting to it about a bad day, for example-and relationship advice, which is what we were hearing qualitatively from some early conversations."
"We also asked a series of questions around how they were engaging with AI characters. Part of the reason why we called it AI characters rather than AI companions-which is oftentimes language we heard in public discourse-was because when we first started testing out some of this language with young people, anytime they heard the wo"
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