Hopefully not Grok’s companions …
A brand new examine by a U.S. nonprofit centered on the lives of children and households, Frequent Sense Media, has discovered {that a} overwhelming majority of U.S. teenagers (72%) have tried an AI companion a minimum of as soon as. By “companion,” the examine is targeted on AI chatbots which can be designed for customers to have extra private conversations with, not AI assistants that work as homework helpers, picture turbines, or voice assistants that simply reply questions.
As an illustration, the examine’s definition of AI companions may embrace these digital AI personas offered by corporations like Character.AI or Replika, nevertheless it may additionally embody using general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude, which can be utilized for extra private conversations, if desired.
The examine discovered that chatting with an AI appears to be interesting to U.S. teenagers (ages 13 to 17), as not solely had practically three-quarters tried an AI companion, but in addition 52% mentioned they’re common customers. Amongst those that engaged with these companions commonly, 13% chat with them each day and 21% chat a number of instances every week.
Boys (31%) have been additionally barely extra probably than women (25%) to say that they had by no means used an AI companion, among the many one in 4 teenagers who mentioned they’ve by no means tried it.
The findings are based mostly on a examine that ran throughout April and Might 2025 and used a consultant pattern of 1,060 teenagers and was performed by researchers from NORC on the College of Chicago. There have already been considerations about AI’s impression on teenagers’ well-being, as one agency, Character.AI, is being sued over a teen’s suicide in Florida and for selling violence in Texas. There are additionally a lot of studies that describe the potential risks of utilizing AI for remedy.
The findings from Frequent Sense Media’s new examine supply an early understanding of how younger individuals are utilizing AI to simulate human interactions, which may embrace digital friendship, emotional help, remedy, and role-playing video games, amongst different issues.
The evaluation additionally examined different behaviors round teen utilization of AI companions, together with what kinds of duties teenagers turned to them for, why, and what the after-effects have been.
As an illustration, practically half (46%) mentioned they noticed AI companions as instruments or packages, and 33% mentioned they use them for social interplay and relationships. Teenagers mentioned they use the AI companions for numerous functions: leisure (30%), curiosity about AI know-how (28%), recommendation (18%), and since they’re all the time accessible (17%).
Half of teenagers (50%) mentioned they don’t belief the data offered by AI companions. Nonetheless, older teenagers are much less more likely to belief the AI’s recommendation in contrast with youthful teenagers, ages 13 to 14, at 20% and 27%, respectively.
One-third of the teenagers mentioned they discover the conversations extra satisfying than these with real-life associates, although the bulk (67%) felt the other method.
Plus, 39% have been utilizing the AI conversations as apply for real-life interactions, as 39% mentioned they utilized abilities they first tried with an AI to real-world conditions. Among the many abilities practiced, social abilities have been the highest use case, with 39% of teenagers having explored this space, adopted by dialog starters (18%), giving recommendation (14%), and expressing feelings (13%).
By way of whether or not real-life relationships might be changed by tech, there was one constructive discovering: 80% of teenagers who used AI companions mentioned they spend extra time with actual associates than with their AI chatbots. Solely 6% mentioned the reverse was true.
