“The demand for chatbot relationships is there, and it is notably high—pretending it’s not happening is clearly not the solution,” she says. AI companionship has become a topic of fierce debate recently, with two high-profile lawsuits underway against Character.AI and OpenAI. They both claim that companion-like behavior in the companies’ models contributed to the suicides of two teenagers. In response, OpenAI has recently announced plans to build a separate version of ChatGPT for teenagers. OpenAI did not respond when asked for comment about the MIT Media Lab study.