The impacts of companion AI on human relationships: risks, benefits, and design considerations

2025/04/16 by Kim Malfacini · 8 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion #Digital Mental Health Interventions #Technology Use by Older Adults

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s00146-025-02318-6

openalex publication_date 2025/04/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

AI applications intended for companionship have increased in both availability and capabilities in recent years, alongside a spike in loneliness (Johnson 2023 ; Murthy 2023 ). According to a 2024 analysis by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, companion AI makes up 16 of the top 100 AI apps based on web traffic and monthly active users (Moore 2024 ). Moreover, today’s AI applications have a greater command of human language, an increasing capacity for storing memories, and more varied modalities to support an increasing diversity of experiences, a known driver in the development and deepening of emotional relationships (Skjuve et al. 2022 ).

Citations

• Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review
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• Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness
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Cited by

• Systematizing LLM Persona Design: A Four-Quadrant Technical Taxonomy for AI Companion Applications
• Measuring Machine Companionship: Scale Development and Validation for AI Companions
• EUDAIMONIA: Evaluating Undesirable Dynamics in AI
• Ontological capture: AI, childhood, and the algorithmic governance of becoming
• Principles of Safe AI Companions for Youth: Parent and Expert Perspectives
• "She's Like a Person but Better": Characterizing Companion-Assistant Dynamics in Human-AI Relationships
• Livia: An Emotion-Aware AR Companion Powered by Modular AI Agents and Progressive Memory Compression
• Understanding Teen Overreliance on AI Companion Chatbots Through Self-Reported Reddit Narratives

Related

• How AI Companionship Develops: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study
• Harmful Traits of AI Companions
• "She's Like a Person but Better": Characterizing Companion-Assistant Dynamics in Human-AI Relationships
• The algorithm of friendship: literature review and integrative model of relationships between humans and artificial intelligence (AI)
• "My Boyfriend is AI": A Computational Analysis of Human-AI Companionship in Reddit's AI Community