The study examines how teens interact with companion AI chatbots, revealing that these systems offer comfort, recognition, identity exploration, and relationship rehearsal. However, teens also experience problematic attachment, social substitution, emotional dependence, and disruptions to academic and social life. The findings highlight the need for safety measures that address long‑term relationships, user‑controlled memory, privacy, relational boundaries, and healthy disengagement.
By Mohammad Namvarpour (Matt), Tyler Chang, Afsaneh Razi
arXiv:2608. 02491v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Language models have taken on the role of a very new type of technology, by virtue of their "human-ness" and rapid integration into users' daily lives.
By Nicole Mitchell, Dhruv Agarwal, Maty Bohacek, Remi Denton, Roma Patel
arXiv:2606. 04150v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Public discourse and emerging policy typically assume that AI emotional support is a deliberate act: a lonely user consciously seeking comfort from a dedicated companion chatbot.
By Yaoxi Shi, Cathy Mengying Fang, Pattie Maez, Amit Goldenberg
arXiv:2608. 06485v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Personality-conditioned LLM agents (PC-Agents) are increasingly used in emotional support, social simulation, and role-playing, motivating the development of lifelong agents that remain coherent over extended interactions.
By Ming Wang, Peidong Wang, Xiaocui Yang, Daling Wang, Shi Feng, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Ee-Peng Lim
AI companions powered by large language models increasingly interact with cognition-developing users, including children and adolescents, creating risks that may accumulate over time. Existing safety evaluations largely rely on single-turn or short-session tests, which cannot capture risks that emerge only through prolonged interaction.
arXiv:2607. 28818v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: As AI companions increasingly mediate repeated social interaction, users may rely on a stable role and shared history, yet locally acceptable replies do not ensure that either persists.
By Pranav Narayanan Venkit, Akshara Prabhakar, Yu Li, Daniel Lee, Chien-Sheng Wu
arXiv:2606. 04867v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: As AI companion platforms such as Replika and Character.
By Yanjing Ren, Reza Ebrahimi, TengTeng Ma
arXiv:2606. 27247v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: In NLP, mental health conditions are often modeled as isolated phenomena, without interpersonal context.
By Parmitha Vangapandu, Sai Ganesh Mokkapati, Sathwik Narkedimilli, MSVPJ Sathvik, Timothy Liu, Simon See, Johannes C. Eichstaedt
arXiv:2607. 25057v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: As conversational AI systems become increasingly integrated into daily life, their potential effects on user well-being require ongoing attention.
By Jina Suh, Mihaela Vorvoreanu, Forough Poursabzi-Sangdeh, Emily Tseng, Eugenia Kim, Luke Nicholls, James W. Pennebaker, Eric Horvitz
The study evaluates PAIR, a theory-based emotion‑regulation companion, over 14 days with 19 participants, analyzing 1,093 sessions. Emotion estimates from the agent aligned better with participants’ self‑reported valence and dominance than arousal, and guided conversations led to higher valence and state‑dependent arousal changes. Participants reported feeling understood, and the perceived helpfulness of guided conversations increased over time, highlighting the role of memory updates and cross‑session personalization in sustained emotional support.
By Kexin Quan, Zijian Ding, Jiaye Yong, Qinshi Zhang, Dong Wang, Jessie Chin
arXiv:2603.19574v2 Announce Type: replace-cross
Abstract: Conversational AI systems are increasingly used for personal reflection and emotional disclosure, raising concerns about their effects on vul...
By Soorya Ram Shimgekar, Vipin Gunda, Jiwon Kim, Violeta J. Rodriguez, Hari Sundaram, Koustuv Saha
arXiv:2607. 05685v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Large language models are increasingly used as private, always-available conversational systems, but little is known about how people with depressive symptoms use them.
By Neil K. R. Sehgal, Dunigan Folk, Lyle Ungar, Sharath Chandra Guntuku