If Kayla Chege, a Kansas high school student, uses artificial intelligence, there is no doubt.
The 15-year-old asks ChatGpt for guidance on back-to-school shopping, makeup colours, low-calorie choices in smoothie king, as well as ideas for her Sweet 16 and sister's birthday party.
The second-grade honor student emphasizes not letting the chatbot do her homework and tries to limit her interactions to ordinary questions. However, in an interview with The Associated Press and New Research, teenagers say they are interacting more and more with AI as if it were peers and could provide advice and friendship.
“Everyone is using AI for everything right now, and that's really taking over,” says Chege, who wonders how AI tools will affect her generation. “I think kids use AI to get out of their thoughts.”
Over the past few years, concerns about school misconduct have dominated conversations about children and AI. However, artificial intelligence plays a much larger role in many of their lives. Teenage AI has become a go-to source of personal advice, emotional support, everyday decision-making and problem-solving.
According to a new study from Common Sense Media, over 70% of teens use AI companions, with half using them regularly. This is a group that researches and advocates the wise use of screens and digital media.
This study defines AI companions as platforms designed to act as “digital friends” such as Character.ai and Replika, which can be customized with specific traits and personalities. However, popular sites like ChatGpt and Claude, which primarily answer questions, are used in the same way, researchers say.
As technology rapidly refines, teenagers and experts worry about the possibility of AI redefine relationships and exacerbating loneliness and the mental health crisis of young people.
“AI is always available. It won't get bored of you. It's never judgement,” says Ganesh Naia, 18-year-old Arkansas. “When you're talking to AI, you're always right. You're always funny. You're always emotionally justified.”
Formerly attractive, he hopes to step back from using AI as Nia heads to college this fall. Nia later asked the chatbot to write a farewell text that ended his two-year relationship with a high school friend who had relied on an “AI companion” for heart-to-heart conversation with his girlfriend.
“It felt a bit dystopian, as computers created the end of an actual relationship,” Nia said. “It seems like computers allow our relationships to be replaced with people.”
At the Common Sense Media Survey, 31% of teens say that conversations with their AI peers are “resatisfied or satisfying” than talking to real friends. Half of teens said they distrust AI advice, but 33% discussed serious or important issues with AI rather than real people.
These findings are bothering us, says Michael Robb, the study's lead author and the principal of Common Sense. They say they should send warnings to parents, teachers and policy makers. Today, the more unregulated AI industry is integrated with adolescence, just like smartphones and social media.
“It's eye-opening,” Rob said. “When I set out to do this survey, I didn't understand the number of children actually using AI companions.” The survey voted for teens and older across the country in April and May.
He said that adolescence is a critical period for developing identity, social skills and independence, and that AI peers should complement real-world interactions rather than complement them.
“If teens are constantly validated on AI platforms, not challenged, not learning to read social clues or understand someone else's perspective, not properly prepared in the real world,” he said.
The nonprofit analyzed several popular AI peers in a “risk assessment,” finding ineffective age limits, and found that the platform can generate sexual material, provide dangerous advice, and provide harmful content. The group recommends that minors do not use AI peers.
Researchers and educators are concerned about the cognitive costs of young people who rely heavily on AI, especially in their creativity, critical thinking and social skills. The potential dangers for children forming relationships with chatbots attracted national attention last year when a 14-year-old Florida boy died of suicide after developing an emotional attachment to the character.
“We've seen a lot of experience in the world,” said Eva Telzer, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “We were all impressed by how quickly this exploded.” Telzer leads multiple studies on youth and AI, a new field of research where data is limited.
Telzer's research found that 8-year-olds use generative AI, and teens used AI to explore sexuality and discover it for dating. In the focus group, Telzer discovered that one of the top teen apps frequently and often is Spicychat AI. This is a free role-playing app for adults.
Also, many teens say they use chatbots to write emails and messages and tone them in sensitive situations.
“One concern that comes up is that they no longer trust themselves to make decisions,” Telzer said. “They need feedback from AI before they feel they can check the box to see if the idea is okay.”
Arkansas teen Bruce Perry, 17, says he is involved in it and relies on AI tools to write and proofread essays for his English class.
“If I tell me to plan an essay, I'll consider going to Chatgupt before I leave my pencil,” Perry said. He used AI every day, seeking advice in social situations, deciding what he would wear, and helping him write emails to his teachers, helping the AI to clarify his ideas faster.
Perry says he feels fortunate that he had no peers around when he was younger.
“I'm worried that this will lead to my kids getting lost,” Perry said. “We could see kids who didn't see the reason AI would go to the park or make friends.”
Other teens agree that AI issues and the impact on children's mental health are different to social media issues.
“Social media complemented the need people to see in order for people to meet new people,” Nia said. “I think AI complements another need to run deeper. It's the need for attachment and the need to feel emotions. It feeds it.”
“It's a new addiction,” added Nea. “That's how I see it.”
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