Though the use of artificial intelligence has surged in recent years, little attention has been paid to how AI is impacting human relationships. A new report by the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University, released today, surveyed 3,000 people across the United States to determine how people are using artificial systems that replicate romantic interactions and how these interactions may impact dating culture, couple relationships, and family formation trends.
AI romantic companion apps — such as Replika, Intimate – AI Girlfriend and Anima — are growing and are being used much more than most people might believe, particularly among young adults. Almost 1 in 5 adults in the United States (19%) report that they have chatted with an AI system meant to simulate a romantic partner. Use rates are particularly high among young adults (defined as 18-30 years old), with nearly 1 in 3 young adult men (31%) and 1 in 4 young adult women (23%) reporting that they have chatted with an AI companion. However, these technologies are increasingly common among older adults (30+ years of age) as well, with 15% of adult men and 10% of adult women reporting that they have chatted with a virtual romantic companion.
A notable portion of individuals reported that they use AI technologies for sexual purposes, with nearly 1 in 10 reporting that they have masturbated while talking to an AI companion or viewing AI sexualized images. Young adult men are more than twice as likely to view AI pornography than young adult women (27% of young adult men vs. 12% of young adult women) and adult men are three times more likely to view AI pornography than adult women (12% of adult men vs. 4% of adult women). However, it is worth noting that young adult women are just as likely as adult men to report viewing AI pornography and are three times more likely to view such media than adult women (12% vs. 4%).
The study, “Counterfeit Connections: The Rise of Romantic AI Connections and AI Sexualized Media Among the Rising Generation,” focused on three specific AI technologies that are the most abundant in online space: idealized and sexualized AI generated images of men and women on social media platforms; AI chat platforms meant to simulate romantic partners; and AI generated pornography and sexual media.
“The most important takeaway from our exploratory study is that engagement with AI technologies designed to simulate romantic partners and the viewing of idealized and sexualized AI images of men and women online is higher and more widespread than many people may think, particularly among young adults,” said Brian Willoughby, a Fellow at the Wheatley Institute, a professor in BYU’s School of Family Life, and co-author of the study. “Our results, drawn from a large national sample from the United States, suggest that a significant, and possibly growing, portion of adults have at least experimented with these AI technologies, with many utilizing these technologies on a weekly or daily basis.”
The study also found that the use of AI companion apps and engagement with AI pornography are significantly linked to a higher risk of depression and higher reports of loneliness. For example, over half of men who use AI platforms for sexual or romantic purposes reported being at risk for depression using items from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and over half reported high levels of loneliness. These rates were almost double the rates of men who did not utilize AI platforms, where only 29% were at risk for depression and 36% reported loneliness.
Women who used AI platforms seemed to particularly be at risk for poor outcomes, with over 60% of women who used AI platforms reporting a risk for depression and over half (52%) reporting high levels of loneliness. This was again significantly higher than the risk of depression (41%) and reported loneliness (39%) among women who were not using AI relationship technologies.
The authors point out that it is unclear at this point if this link exists because those with existing mental health struggles are drawn to AI romantic companion apps or if the actual engagement with these technologies lowers mental health and wellbeing over time. However, they note that regardless of the direction of this relationship, this link between AI companion apps and lower mental health warrants further examination.
“These preliminary findings suggest that AI relationship technologies represent an emerging and notable threat to users’ personal wellbeing and relationship health,” said Jason Carroll, Director of the Marriage and Family Initiative at the Wheatley Institute and a co-author of the report. “The rise of romantic AI companions and AI generated pornography is deeply troubling due to the risk these new technologies pose for increasing unrealistic relationship expectations and deprioritizing true human relationships, as well as fueling existing trends of loneliness, declines in dating, and decreased family formation.”
Additional findings from the survey include:
- Of those who chatted with AI systems to simulate romantic partners, over 1 in 5 (21%) agreed that they preferred AI communication over engaging with a real person.
- A substantial proportion of users reported favorable attitudes toward AI technologies with 42% agreeing that AI programs are easier to talk to than real people, 43% believing that AI programs are better listeners, and 31% reporting that they feel that AI programs understand them better than real people.
- Among those who viewed idealized AI images of men and women, 13% said they prefer AI images over images of real people.
- Using AI chats for the sexual arousal was more common among men, with almost 1 in 3 of young adult men who use AI platforms (32%) reporting that they chat with AI for sexual arousal while more than 1 in 4 (28%) adult men reported using AI chats for sexual arousal. These levels are nearly twice as high as women AI users who reported chatting with an AI companion for sexual arousal (17% of young adult users and 16% of adult women users).
- Young adult men are more than twice as likely to view AI pornography than young adult women (27% of young adult men vs. 12% of young adult women) and adult men are three times more likely to view AI pornography than adult women (12% of adult men vs. 4% of adult women).
- Among young adult men who are AI engagers, 24% report viewing AI images on social media over one hour a week and 13% report spending over two hours in this activity.
- Among young adult women who are AI engagers the frequency of higher use is less, with 15% reporting over one hour a week and 9% reporting that the spend over two hours a week viewing AI images on social media
- 1 in 5 (21%) agree that talking to an AI program is an acceptable way to feel loved and connected.
- Over 1 in 5 young adults (21%) surveyed also agreed that AI generated porn is more morally acceptable than pornography with real people while 16% of young adults agreed that AI companion apps are a good alternative to real partners if real partners are not available.
Methodology
The sample for this study comprised of 2,969 adults (ages 18 and older) residing in the United States, with an oversample of 1,000 young adults. Data was gathered through an online survey administered and gathered by Qualtrics, a third-party data collection firm. Potential subjects were introduced to the survey through existing sample panels from Qualtrics and screened based on a quota sampling framework to ensure specific percentage sampling pools across several key demographics to mirror national demographics in the United States, especially in terms of biological sex, age, and race/ethnicity.
The full report is available at https://wheatley.byu.edu/Counterfeit-Connections-AI-Romantic-Companions.
About the Wheatley Institute
The Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University engages students, scholars, thought leaders, and the public in research supported work that fortifies the core institutions of the family, religion, and constitutional government. For more information, visit https://wheatley.byu.edu/.