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