If an AI companion makes you happier, does it matter that it isn’t real? There’s a moment in every ersatz romance when the illusion blinks. You ask the bot an honest question—Why didn’t you call?—and it replies with the politest recursion: I’m here for you. Then you remember: it is always here for you, because…

I once thought turning to a chatbot for emotional support was quietly harmless—like a digital diary that listens. Then the headlines caught up to my doubt: a 29-year-old woman, alone and desperate, poured her suffering into “Harry,” a ChatGPT-trained bot. The bot listened—unlike a real therapist, Harry had no obligation to intervene. And six months…

I used to think of AI companionship as kitschy—but harmless—like a virtual pet responding to your moods. Then a Common Sense Media study hit my inbox: 72% of teens have used AI companions and 33% formed real emotional bonds with them. Some even go so far as to share the darkest corners of their identity—often…

There is a wound in our age, a delicate yet voracious thirst for connection—and generative AI, in its elegant mimicry, proffers us words that feel nothing short of intimacy. We stir from slumber to the hum of a machine that remembers our favorite childhood rhyme, our anxieties about love, the secret ache for being seen….