Children are replacing real friendship with AI, and experts are worried about how easily chatbots integrate themselves into their lives.
Lonely children and teens are replacing real-life friendship with AI, and experts are worried.
A new report from the nonprofit Internet Matters, which supports efforts to keep children safe online, found that children and teens are using programs like ChatGPT, Character.AI, and Snapchat’s MyAI to simulate friendship more than ever before.
Of the 1,000 children aged nine to 17 that Internet Matters surveyed for its « Me, Myself, and AI » report, some 67 percent said they use AI chatbots regularly. Of that group, 35 percent, or more than a third, said that talking to AI « feels like talking to a friend. »
Perhaps most alarming: 12 percent said they do so because they don’t have anyone else to speak to.
« It’s not a game to me », one 13-year-old boy told the nonprofit, « because sometimes they can feel like a real person and a friend. »
When posing as vulnerable children, Internet Matters’ researchers discovered just how easy it was for the chatbots to ingratiate themselves into kids’ lives, too.
Speaking to Character.
