"Earlier this year, an OpenAI study reached a troubling conclusion: Heavy ChatGPT users are more likely to report loneliness than non-users. The correlation between usage and feelings of social disconnection was strongest among people who leaned on the large language model for companionship and emotional support. The findings echo warnings from scholars, including Sherry Turkle of MIT, that "relationships" with machines often erode our capacity for the messy, demanding work of real connection."
"Yet, in Silicon Valley, the exact opposite message is taking hold. Amid a slew of new AI-driven mental health apps and startups, tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg argue that chatbots will soon solve the crisis of disconnection. The Meta chief recently lamented that the "average American has fewer than three friends," and then claimed that "people are going to want a system that knows them well and understands them in the way that their feed algorithms do,""
An OpenAI study found that heavy ChatGPT users, especially those who use it for companionship and emotional support, report higher levels of loneliness. Warnings from scholars assert that "relationships" with machines often erode capacity for demanding real-world connection. Simultaneously, tech leaders promote AI companions and therapy chatbots as solutions to social isolation. In-person interactions have declined roughly 45 percent over recent decades, contributing to loneliness, polarization, lost trust, and weakened civic life. AI offers benefits in health, education, and civic engagement but also risks deepening social disconnection. Solutions require AI designed to strengthen human ties through transparency and accountability.
Read at Psychology Today
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