--- title: "Scientists Just Found Something Dark About People With AI Girlfriends and Boyfriends" description: "AI companions are on the rise — but new research has found that they may do more harm than good to the humans using them." date: "2025-09-02" modified: "2025-09-02" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/ai-bf-gf-companions-dark" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Health & Medicine" - "Studies" tags: - "ai companion" - "ai gf" - "ai images" --- # Scientists Just Found Something Dark About People With AI Girlfriends and Boyfriends ![AI companions are on the rise — but new research has found that they may do more harm than good to the humans using them.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Over the past few years, there have been more and more stories — [some sad](), [all strange]() — about people falling in love ([and lust]()) with so-called AI-companions. As AI tools grow more sophisticated and gain more [mainstream acceptance](), so too has interest in these [digital paramours increased]() — but these romantic chatbots may be doing more harm than good to the humans that are so attached to them. In a [new study]() published in the *Journal of Social and Personal Relationships*, researchers from Brigham Young University found not only that enormous numbers of people are engaging with AI companions, but that many of them seem to be more depressed and lonely than those who don't. Based on an survey that asked 2,989 respondents, the researchers found that nearly one in five people overall — and a full quarter of young adults aged 18 to 29 — had already used a romance-simulating AI chatbot. Along with that large proportion of Americans who've experimented with AI companions, the BYU researchers also learned that seven percent of the survey respondents admitted to masturbating when chatting with AI companions, and an additional 13 percent copped to watching AI-generated porn. Men were reportedly much more likely to watch AI porn than women, and younger adults were more than twice as likely as older to engage with AI generally — as well as to say they prefer AI over a real human relationship. Though these technologies, especially AI companions, are marketed to help lonely people feel more connected, BYU relationship researcher and first paper author Brian Willoughby told *PsyPost* in an interview that he and his colleagues instead found evidence suggesting "links between AI use and depression and loneliness." "While the direction of this association is unclear," he continued, "we found no evidence that AI use is helping people feel less alone or isolated.” That's not surprising. Collaborating with MIT earlier this year, [OpenAI itself found]() that highly engaged ChatGPT users tend to be lonelier. And [research by Internet Matters]() earlier this summer found that a staggering 67 percent of children aged nine to 17 are using AI chatbots regularly, with a third saying it "feels like talking to a friend" and 12 percent saying they have no one else to talk to. At its worst, obsessive use of ChatGPT and simlar bots has been linked to [severe mental health breakdowns]() that psychiatrists are [now calling "AI psychosis]()," and which have resulted in [involuntary commitment](), [suicides](), and [murder](). Strangely enough, the BYU researchers also found that respondents in committed relationships with other humans were more likely to report using AI companion chatbots, or to seek out AI imagery of attractive people, than their single counterparts, in an intriguing phenomenon that [may be considered]() a [new form of infidelity](). Naturally, with self-reported answers like these, the tendency for responses to be skewed — in this case, likely out of shame or embarrassment — is substantial. Still, this study provides a detailed and somewhat uncanny snapshot into how many people are already using AI on sexual and romantic fronts, and offers hints about *why* they may be using it, too. **More on AI gfs:** [*Couples Retreat for Humans Dating AIs Becomes Skin-Crawlingly Uncomfortable*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()