If an AI companion becomes someone’s most consistent emotional presence, the right question isn’t “how do we stop this?” It’s “what does that say about the world around them?” Technological relationships are not new. What’s new is how effective they’ve become; and how clearly they mirror the gaps we’ve refused to address.

We’ve tried prohibition... See more

In what way does talking with an AI companion differ from talking with a friend or family member?

One key difference is that the large language models that form the backbone of these companions tend to be sycophantic, giving users their preferred answers. The chatbot learns more about the user’s preferences with each interaction and responds... See more

Somehow we are too distrustful to talk to each other, and more than happy to confess to a sycophantic alien machine.