Hopefully not Grok’s companions …
A brand new examine by a U.S. nonprofit targeted on the lives of children and households, Common Sense Media, has discovered {that a} overwhelming majority of U.S. teenagers (72%) have tried an AI companion at the very least as soon as. By “companion,” the examine is concentrated on AI chatbots which are 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 supplied by corporations like Character.AI or Replika, however it may additionally embody the usage of 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 additionally 52% stated they’re common customers. Amongst those that engaged with these companions recurrently, 13% chat with them every day and 21% chat a couple of instances every week.
Boys (31%) had been additionally barely extra seemingly than ladies (25%) to say that they had by no means used an AI companion, among the many one in 4 teenagers who stated they’ve by no means tried it.
The findings are primarily based on a study 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 issues 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 promoting violence in Texas. There are additionally numerous reviews that describe the potential dangers of utilizing AI for remedy.
The findings from Frequent Sense Media’s new examine provide an early understanding of how younger persons 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 types of duties teenagers turned to them for, why, and what the after-effects had been.
As an illustration, practically half (46%) stated they noticed AI companions as instruments or packages, and 33% stated they use them for social interplay and relationships. Teenagers stated they use the AI companions for numerous functions: leisure (30%), curiosity about AI expertise (28%), recommendation (18%), and since they’re all the time accessible (17%).
Half of teenagers (50%) stated they don’t belief the data supplied by AI companions. Nonetheless, older teenagers are much less prone to belief the AI’s recommendation in contrast with youthful teenagers, ages 13 to 14, at 20% and 27%, respectively.
One-third of the kids stated they discover the conversations extra satisfying than these with real-life mates, although the bulk (67%) felt the other method.
Plus, 39% had been utilizing the AI conversations as apply for real-life interactions, as 39% stated they utilized expertise they first tried with an AI to real-world conditions. Among the many expertise practiced, social expertise had 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%).
When it comes to whether or not real-life relationships will probably be changed by tech, there was one optimistic discovering: 80% of teenagers who used AI companions stated they spend extra time with actual mates than with their AI chatbots. Solely 6% stated the reverse was true.