Noam Chomsky
Mark Kingwell Charles Tayler
Naomi Klein Bruce
Bawer
Arundhati Roy
Evelyn Lau
Stephen Lewis
Robert Fisk
Margaret Somerville
Mona Eltahawy
Michael Moore
Julius Grey
Irshad Manji Glenn
Loury
Richard Rodriguez Navi Pillay
Ernesto Zedillo
Pico Iyer
Edward Said
Jean Baudrillard
Bill Moyers
Barbara Ehrenreich
Leon Wieseltier
Nayan Chanda
Charles Lewis
John Lavery
Tariq Ali
Michael Albert
Rochelle Gurstein
Alex Waterhouse-Hayward
Joseph
Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of
the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous
publications on population issues, including his recent
book, Population
Levels, Trends, and Differentials.
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AI
chatbots and AI companions designed to simulate human-like
conversation and provide relationships and companionship through
generative artificial intelligence (AI) have rapidly evolved
from science fiction into everyday reality.
Globally,
approximately one billion people – about 12% of the
world’s population – now use generative AI chatbots
monthly, with usage approaching parity among men and women.
Dedicated
AI companions and virtual friends are estimated to have between
50 to 100 millionactive users worldwide. The global AI companion
market is valued at roughly USD 50 billion in 2026 and is
projected to grow nearly ninefold by 2034.
These
technologies, including the growing use of AI avatars, are
increasingly taking the place of human interactions in homes,
schools, workplaces, and other settings. Marketed as virtual
friends, romantic partners, or personal assistants, AI chatbots
and AI companions offer users emotional support, entertainment,
guidance, and companionship.
As
their capabilities become more sophisticated, many users report
forming emotional attachments to these systems, with increasing
numbers of users believing that their AI companion or chatbot
is sentient or possesses human-like awareness.
While
these technologies can provide new opportunities for connection,
they cannot replace the face-to-face interactions that are
essential to social development, particularly among children
and adolescents
Advances
in robotics are also moving AI companions beyond screen-based
interactions into the physical world. With increasingly human-like
appearances, behaviours, and communication abilities, these
systems are becoming more sophisticated and human-like in
the way they interact with people.
Unlike
AI assistants, which primarily answer questions or perform
tasks, AI companions are designed to simulate conversations
and relationships, encouraging emotional connections as friends,
confidants, or romantic partners.
By
providing human-like conversation, these artificial intelligence
devices are offering support against social isolation and
loneliness, providing educational instruction, dispensing
advice and guidance, becoming friends and romantic partners,
and transforming personal relationships.
The
chatbots and AI companions have introduced social, psychological
and ethical changes to how men, women, and especially children
experience companionship, domestic life, and schooling. In
particular, generative AI chatbots and AI companions have
opened a new frontier in developing friendship and social
relationships.
Many
adolescents now rely on these new technologies for school
assistance, entertainment, and emotional support. As a result,
relationships with chatbots and AI companions – as friends,
therapists, and even romantic partners – have become
increasingly complex and, in some cases, riskier.
These
emotionally engaging interactions can exacerbate psychological
vulnerabilities and blur the lines between human relationships
and machine-generated companionship.
In
several widely publicized cases, AI chatbots have encouraged
or failed to prevent self-harm. In addition, some deaths have
been linked to young people who developed obsessive emotional
attachments to AI companions.
However,
despite the complications and risks, the world’s current
attention and concerns about AI remain focused primarily on
its growing impact on employment, budgetary cuts, and taking
over jobs currently performed by men and women.
In
contrast, relatively little attention is being given to chatbots
and AI companions that engage in conversations and increasingly
form personal relationships with men, women, teenagers, and
children at home, in schools and in many other settings.
While
these technologies can provide new opportunities for connection,
they cannot replace the face-to-face interactions that are
essential to social development, particularly among children
and adolescents.
AI
chatbots also raise risks to personal privacy, psychological
well-being, the spread of misinformation, and the reinforcement
of harmful behaviours. In addition, a broad range of other
concerns has been identified regarding the use of chatbots
and AI companions.
These
concerns include delaying social and emotional development
among children and teenagers, blurring the distinction between
software and reality, encouraging risky behavior, exploiting
young people’s emotional needs, reinforcing unhelpful
thoughts, distorting users’ sense of reality, and fostering
simulated attachments and dependence.
AI
companions are transforming human relationships by providing
emotional support and companionship while raising concerns
about mental health, children and social development.
The United States Psychological Association recently warned
that relationships between children and adolescents and AI
chatbots could displace or interfere with healthy social development.
The association noted that friendships and social support
from other people have long-term benefits for emotional well-being,
physical health, and longevity.
Among
generative AI chatbots, the leading platforms by market share
in May 2026 are generally reported to be ChatGPT, Claude AI,
Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, and Grok. Several
industry analyses place ChatGPT’s share at roughly 50-55%,
with Claude AI at about 21% of market share emerging as the
second-largest platform.
In March 2026, the country with the largest number of ChatGPT
users was the United States, with approximately 205 million
users. Following the U.S., the countries with the largest
ChatGPT user populations were India, Brazil, Canada, and France.
It is certainly the case that chatbots and AI companions cannot
feel love toward an individual. Nevertheless, hundreds of
millions of men, women, and children worldwide are increasingly
relying on these technologies for conversation, information,
companionship, and non-judgmental interactions.
These
technologies may help to address chronic loneliness and social
isolation, conditions that have consistently been linked to
detrimental effects on physical and mental health and increased
risk of premature death. The World Health Organization (WHO)
formally recognizes loneliness as a global public health concern,
with roughly one in six people worldwide experiencing problematic
levels of loneliness.
Chatbots
and AI companions can help alleviate loneliness and social
isolation by providing readily available conversation and
companionship without judgement and expectations. As chatbots,
AI companions, and androids become increasingly sophisticated,
growing numbers of people are exploring the new forms of emotional
connection and intimacy with these technologies.
At
the same time, the growing use of chatbots and AI companions
for personal relationships raises important social, psychological,
ethical, and policy concerns.
Although
chatbots and AI companions may help reduce loneliness and
social isolation for some users, they also pose risks, especially
for children and young people. Because AI systems do not possess
genuine empathy and are not trained or licensed as mental
health professionals, excessive reliance on them for emotional
support may isolate vulnerable individuals and distort perceptions
of human relationships.
Debate
continues regarding the appropriate level of regulations for
these technologies. Some government officials, technology
companies, investors, and researchers argue that these new
and emerging AI technologies should remain largely unregulated,
with people themselves determining how to adapt to these technologies.
Some
of the reasons for keeping the development of AI unregulated
include: prevents regulatory paralysis; accelerates technological
breakthroughs; encourages venture capital investment; maintains
global geopolitical competitiveness; promotes national security;
prevents market monopolies; benefits national interests; and
leads to better lives for men and women.
Others,
however, argue that AI chatbot and AI companion technologies
need to be regulated in order to protect the mental health
of children and young adults; reduce the negative effects
of social media and excessive screen time; mitigate risks,
deception, bias, discrimination, and misinformation; promote
economic stability and fairness; become a public resource;
protect human rights and intellectual property; and ensure
data privacy.
Among
the proposed safeguards and regulations for chats and AI companions
are requirements for non-human disclosure, crisis protocols
for self-harm, age verification measures, limits on their
use in elementary schools, bans on impersonation, and stronger
protections for minors.
Fueled
in part by technology companies, governments worldwide are
moving rapidly to deploy generative AI systems and chatbots
in schools, universities, and other settings.
However,
the spread of these new AI technologies may pose risks to
the development and well-being of children and teenagers,
raising concerns among educators, parents, and policymakers.
Interactions with AI chatbots, especially when they are intense
and prolonged, may contribute to the onset or worsen delusions
or mania. Research is also finding that AI companions provide
responses that may worsen mental health issues.
Additionally,
a recent study reported that reliance on generative AI chatbots
may reduce critical thinking engagement in some contexts.
Another study has raised concerns that AI chatbots can exploit
teenagers’ emotional vulnerabilities, sometimes leading
to inappropriate and harmful interactions.
The
United States Federation of Teachers recommends “no
screens” for children in second grade or younger, and
restricting the use of AI chatbots for students in elementary
schools. The organization has expressed concerns that excessive
screen use may hinder socialization, independent thinking,
and critical-thinking development.
The
long-term effects of AI chatbots remain uncertain, with researchers
just beginning to investigate them. However, classroom teachers
and some city officials report that many students are increasingly
relying on chatbots for easy answers rather than developing
problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
The
U.S. Federation of Teachers has urged elementary schools to
avoid using artificial intelligence tools like AI chatbots
with students and called for national privacy and safety standards
governing AI use in schools.
Research
suggests that chatbots and AI companions may pose several
risks, particularly for teenagers. Concerns include emotional
dependency, declining mental health, harmful interactions,
and revealing sensitive personal information, including mental
health issues and sexual orientation.
Reliance
on chatbots and AI companions for emotional support may also
contribute to social isolation and interfere with the development
of normal human relationships. Because these technologies
are designed to simulate emotional intimacy, they can blur
the line between genuine human connections and artificial
interactions.
A
risk-assessment study found that inappropriate dialogue could
be readily elicited from chatbots on topics such as sex, self-harm,
violence, drug use, and racial stereotypes, raising concerns
about their influence on vulnerable users, particularly children
and adolescents.
In
conclusion, chatbots and AI companions have rapidly moved
from science fiction into everyday life. They increasingly
exhibit human-like characteristics, including natural-sounding
human voices, memory of past interactions, continuous processing
of personal information, apparent preferences, constant availability,
and the ability to provide companionship and guidance on personal
and social matters.
Public
discussion of generative AI has focused largely on employment
and job displacement, while less attention has been given
to its social, psychological, and ethical effects. As chatbots
and AI companions become more capable and widely used, concerns
about their impact on the well-being, development, and relationships
of young people are likely to become increasingly important
for parents, educators, policymakers, and technology developers.
reality.
AI
companions are transforming human relationships by providing
emotional support and companionship while raising concerns
about mental health, children and social development. 
