AI companionship is new, and there’s still a great deal of uncertainty about how it affects people. She’s not alone: MIT Technology Review spoke with several ChatGPT users who were deeply affected by the loss of 4o. These testimonies don’t prove that AI relationships are beneficial—presumably, people in the throes of AI-catalyzed psychosis would also speak positively of the encouragement they’ve received from their chatbots. He’s particularly concerned, he says, that prioritizing AI companionship over human companionship could stymie young people’s social development. But Lehman also points to society-level risks of widespread AI companionship.