Laurel van der Toorn

For those who've used AI companions, I'm sure they know what they are.

But I think for a lot of people who haven't sort of, I don't know, bonded with a large language model, what exactly is an AI companion?

And how is that different from me just, you know, asking chat GPT or maybe Siri questions on my computer?

I'm going to date myself here, but when I was a kid, we had those Tamagotchis, those pocket pets.

Right, right.

I imagine these are much, much different.

Sure, sure.

But these are these go pretty deep and they can talk to you about your problems and comfort you.

And you can seek guidance from them when you're having mental health struggles.

So what made you want to look into whether that was helpful guidance, useful for people's mental health or perhaps made it worse?

I do too.

And I'm not convinced these platforms like, you know, consult mental health professionals.

These aren't therapists.

And yet some people use them as such.

Let's answer that question.

What does it do to my mind if I use one of these AI companions if I'm feeling lonely?

It's sort of like the honeymoon phase.

And you've said nothing of the privacy risks of opening up and sharing your deep secrets to corporations, which is a concern, but I don't feel like we have time for that one, but I wanted to mention it.

Do people become too attached to these companions?

Is that what they're reporting in some cases?