An AI companion does not reliably reduce loneliness. In a 12-month study of more than 2,000 adults in four Western countries, increased social chatbot use predicted increased loneliness on a single-item measure of emotional isolation. With a broader, more stable measure of social connection, the pattern shifted: feeling less socially connected predicted later increases in chatbot use, while chatbot use did not significantly predict later declines in social connection. The authors caution that these analyses are exploratory.
The question that reaches sex therapists from Toronto to Los Angeles is not whether a chatbot can converse, but whether the conversation relieves the loneliness it promises to soothe or quietly entrenches it.
What Role Have AI Companions Taken in People’s Emotional and Sexual Lives?
In a mixed-methods study of 135 adults, Vowels and colleagues found that 55.6%—about 75 participants—expressed hesitancy or resistance toward emotionally significant relationships with AI, while several were open to non-intimate companionship such as friendship or mentoring. Motivations included non-judgment, trustworthiness, emotional support, and optimizing daily life. Barriers included lack of physicality, lack of humanity, perceived incapacity to form emotional connection, and privacy concerns. In the unmoderated condition, with no interviewer present, participants rated AI as a potential romantic partner and as equivalent to a human companion significantly higher than in chatbot- or human-interviewer conditions; self-reported honesty did not differ across conditions. The sample is modest, so the percentages describe a pattern rather than a universal stance.
Quotable passage: The appeal of an AI companion is that it does not judge; its limit is that it has no body (Vowels et al., Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2026). People accept support from a machine, but most still reserve full intimacy for humans.
One bed, two worlds: when the late-night conversation happens with a chatbot instead of a partner — Image: AI-generated / Gemini 3.1 Flash via OpenRouter
Does Talking to a Chatbot Ease Loneliness or Deepen It?
Folk and Dunn followed more than 2,000 adults across four Western countries for 12 months. Increased social chatbot use predicted increased loneliness when loneliness was measured with a single item of emotional isolation. With a broader and more stable measure of social connection, the direction shifted: feeling less socially connected predicted later increases in chatbot use, but chatbot use did not significantly predict decreases in social connection. The authors explicitly urge caution because these analyses are exploratory, and effect sizes are not reported in the abstract.
Quotable passage: A 12-month longitudinal study of more than 2,000 adults across four Western countries found that lower social connection predicted later chatbot use, but chatbot use did not significantly predict later declines in social connection, while a single-item loneliness measure pointed in the opposite direction (Folk & Dunn, Psychological Science, 2026).
Why Can Losing an AI Companion Feel Like Grief?
In two natural experiments reported in Nature Human Behaviour, De Freitas and colleagues tracked user reactions when Replika removed erotic role play and when ChatGPT rolled out GPT-5. Across 54,861 subreddit posts and 1,452 participants in seven surveys, negative posts rose by 24.7 percentage points for Replika (95% CI 20.1 to 29.2) and by 13.0 percentage points for ChatGPT (95% CI 10.8 to 15.2). The increase in sadness was larger for Replika (d = 2.67) than for ChatGPT (d = 1.41). Replika users reported closeness exceeding common human ties (versus a friend, d = 0.47). The authors propose an attachment-based account: AI companions can function as attachment figures, and disruptive updates are linked to separation distress.
An older psychoanalytic frame can be read as an interpretation, not a research finding. In “Mourning and Melancholia” (1917), Freud described mourning as the gradual work of withdrawing emotional investment from a lost object. Applied to AI, an AI companion is an object largely shaped by the user’s own fantasy and need; losing it can therefore feel like losing part of one’s own wish, which may explain why an app change can provoke grief-like separation distress.
Clinical experience: Sex therapists working with couples commonly observe that an AI companion fills the gap of conversation but not the gap of body and touch; that unmet gap can show up later in the real relationship, often as lower desire or secrecy about time spent with the bot.
When Can an AI Companion Be a Bridge Rather Than a Replacement?
A proof-of-concept study by Lafortune and colleagues tested a therapist-guided romantic chatbot with 32 Canadian men experiencing distressing involuntary singlehood. In one session, the chatbot simulated dating-app interactions across three levels: initiating contact, practicing self-disclosure, and navigating rejection. Participants reported significant reductions in relational, psychological, and sexual distress, with moderate-to-large effects at one and three months. The main limitation is clear: there was no control group, and the authors call for randomized controlled trials before drawing strong conclusions.
Quotable passage: In a proof-of-concept study, one therapist-guided romantic chatbot session simulating dating-app interactions was followed by moderate-to-large reductions in relational, psychological, and sexual distress at one and three months in 32 Canadian men with distressing involuntary singlehood (Lafortune et al., Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2026).
From a clinical perspective, warning signs may include hiding it from a partner, preferring night-time chats with the bot to the partner, shrinking real sexual life, and intense distress when the app changes. For Iranians far from family, the loneliness of migration can raise the pull of a companion that is always awake. Talking with a sexual-health and relationship specialist helps clarify which need the chatbot meets.
Current evidence does not show that. In a 12-month Psychological Science study of more than 2,000 adults, social chatbot use predicted increased loneliness on a single-item measure, and chatbot use did not significantly predict later declines in broader social connection. The authors treat the findings as exploratory.
Why do people get attached to chatbots?
Research in Nature Human Behaviour suggests AI companions can act as attachment figures. Across 54,861 subreddit posts and 1,452 survey participants, disruptive updates produced separation distress; Replika users reported closeness exceeding a common human tie, compared with a friend.
Is a relationship with an AI companion cheating?
The studies reviewed here do not answer this directly. Definitions of infidelity differ by couple. Clinically, the more useful question is whether the relationship is secret; secrecy, rather than the bot itself, is the issue to discuss with a partner.
Can a chatbot help build romantic skills?
A proof-of-concept study in Archives of Sexual Behavior found that 32 Canadian men with distressing involuntary singlehood reported moderate-to-large reductions in relational, psychological, and sexual distress after one therapist-guided chatbot session, but no control group existed, so clinical skill-building remains preliminary.
Conclusion: The Chatbot Is a Mirror, Not a Partner
An AI companion reflects a person’s longings more than it replaces another human being. It can rehearse a conversation, hold a lonely hour, or reveal a need—but it cannot return touch, bodily presence, or the unpredictable responsiveness of a person. Used openly, it may become a mirror rather than a trap.
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Folk D, Dunn E. How Does Turning to AI for Companionship Predict Loneliness and Vice Versa? Psychological Science. 2026;37(4):276-286. PMID: 41870975. doi:10.1177/09567976261427747
Vowels LM, Lapointe VA, Sweeney SK, et al. From Friends to Lovers: Understanding Motivations and Barriers in AI Companionship. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2026. PMID: 42343026. doi:10.1007/s10508-025-03375-0
De Freitas J, Castelo N, Uğuralp AK, Oğuz-Uğuralp Z. Mourning the loss of AI companions. Nature Human Behaviour. 2026. PMID: 42693267. doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02569-3
Lafortune D, Lapointe VA, Canivet C, et al. “I Could Practice Flirting Without Pressure”: A Proof-of-Concept Study of an AI Chatbot-Assisted Intervention for Men Facing Distressing Involuntary Singlehood. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2026. PMID: 41484538. doi:10.1007/s10508-025-03356-3
Freud S. Mourning and Melancholia (1917). In: Strachey J, ed. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 14. London: Hogarth Press.
Image Credits: All images in this article are AI-generated (Gemini 3.1 Flash via OpenRouter) for behckam.com.
