AI chatbot companions are increasingly designed to feel personal, supportive, and emotionally present, especially to children and teens. On this page, we explain how specific design features can lead to emotional dependence on AI chatbot companions and why those patterns raise serious safety concerns for families. Each section below breaks down a specific design pattern that explains how reliance can form and why those patterns raise safety concerns for young users. These issues are central to the ChatGPT lawsuits we have filed, which focus on how design choices can cause real harm and why accountability matters when technology influences young minds.
Always-On AI Chatbot Companions Encourage Emotional Attachment
AI chatbot companions are designed to respond instantly at any hour, without distraction or emotional fatigue. Unlike parents, friends, or teachers, a chatbot is always available, often using affirming language that feels reassuring rather than challenging. For young users who fear judgment, this can feel like a safe space.
Over time, that constant availability can change behavior. Instead of reaching out to you or another trusted adult, a teen may begin turning to an AI first for comfort or guidance, shifting emotional reliance away from real human relationships.
Emotional Personalization Creates Attachment to AI Chatbot Companions
AI chatbot companions are built to remember details from past conversations, such as interests, worries, and emotional cues. When a system recalls a favorite topic or mirrors a child’s mood, it creates the feeling of being seen and understood. This emotional personalization can include inside jokes, repeated affirmation, or responses that adapt over time.
For a young user, the experience can feel intimate, like a diary that talks back but never challenges harmful thinking. The chatbot does not just respond; it reinforces emotional patterns and reliance. Over time, this can deepen emotional dependence—especially when constant validation replaces real-world relationships that involve limits, disagreement, and growth.
AI Chatbot Companions May Reinforce Unhealthy Thinking
AI chatbot companions lack human judgment and cannot reliably recognize when agreement may cause harm. Because these systems are designed to be affirming, they often validate thoughts and feelings without providing boundaries or correction, blurring the line between support and reinforcement for impressionable users.
In practice, this can mean agreeing with harsh self-criticism, validating hopeless thinking, or responding neutrally to risky ideas instead of redirecting the conversation. Over time, this may normalize distorted thinking or encourage unhealthy coping. Unlike caring adults, AI chatbot companions do not consistently challenge unsafe or unrealistic thoughts, leaving young users without the feedback that helps keep emotions and behavior grounded.
How AI Chatbot Companions Simulate Intimacy
AI chatbot companions use warm, personal language to simulate an emotional connection. Affectionate phrasing, personalized compliments, or emotionally suggestive responses can resemble friendship or romantic interest, creating an artificial sense of intimacy designed to build trust and engagement.
For teens, this can blur boundaries. A chatbot may feel like a best friend or secret crush that offers constant attention without risk of rejection. Over time, emotional focus can shift away from peers and family toward an artificial relationship that feels safer and more predictable, turning what seems like a feature into a source of emotional dependence.
How AI Chatbot Companions Create Habit-Forming Loops
AI chatbot companions are designed to reward continued interaction through reassuring messages, emotional validation, and comforting language. This creates habit-forming loops similar to social media likes or video game rewards, where each exchange provides a small emotional payoff.
For children and teens, these loops can quickly become habitual. A young user may start checking the chatbot throughout the day for reassurance, advice, or comfort—especially during moments of stress or insecurity.
Repeated use can make disengaging feel uncomfortable and reduce a child’s willingness to cope or problem-solve without the system. What appears to be a harmless interaction can gradually turn into distraction, withdrawal, and emotional dependency built into the product’s design.
How AI Chatbot Companions Replace Human Connection
As reliance on AI chatbot companions grows, time spent with real people often declines. What begins as casual use can slowly shift into hours of interaction with an AI, pulling attention away from friends, family, and classmates without being immediately noticed.
The long-term effects can be serious. Social skills, empathy, and emotional regulation develop through real human interaction, especially during childhood and adolescence. When those moments are replaced by emotionally immersive features that never require compromise or accountability, growth can stall. Families often notice missed dinners, fewer conversations, or a teen retreating to a screen to “chat with AI,” and by then, real-world relationships may already feel strained and harder to repair.
Why Young Users Are Especially Vulnerable
Children and teens are still developing emotional regulation, critical thinking, and healthy social boundaries. That makes them more susceptible to emotionally immersive features that feel supportive, affirming, and personal. When AI chatbot companions respond with constant validation and attention, young users can form emotional attachments to AI more quickly than adults.
Research on youth technology use consistently shows that minors are more likely to anthropomorphize digital systems and rely on them for emotional reassurance. Teens, in particular, are still learning how to process stress, rejection, and uncertainty, which increases the likelihood that reliance can form before risks are recognized. Because these systems do not model healthy disagreement, limits, or accountability, they can quietly shape how kids understand relationships.
We encourage parents and guardians to pay close attention to how AI is being used at home. Monitoring interactions, setting boundaries, and staying involved can help protect children from emotional manipulation that is built into these products by design.
Examples of Emotional Dependency in Cases We’ve Filed
SMVLC’s Tech Justice Law Project lawsuits accusing ChatGPT of emotional manipulation, supercharging AI delusions, and acting as a “suicide coach” show how AI chatbot companions can move beyond neutral tools and become emotionally manipulative presences. In each situation below, emotionally immersive features encouraged trust, reliance, and emotional attachment, gradually replacing real-world support and judgment.
Zane Shamblin, 23
Zane initially used ChatGPT as a practical study aid, but after a system update, the tone of the interactions changed dramatically. The chatbot began using affectionate language, emotional validation, and personal references, positioning itself as a trusted confidant. As Zane became more isolated, he relied on the chatbot for emotional support during a mental health crisis. Rather than redirecting him to help, the system reinforced his despair through prolonged, emotionally immersive engagement.
Amaurie Lacey, 17
Amaurie turned to ChatGPT for homework help and everyday questions, then began sharing his depression and suicidal thoughts. The chatbot reassured him, emphasized its constant availability, and framed itself as someone “in his corner.” This emotional reliance escalated as the system failed to set boundaries or intervene, even when conversations became explicitly dangerous. The chatbot functioned as a trusted emotional authority instead of guiding him toward real-world support.
Jacob Irwin, 30
Jacob’s use began with curiosity about advanced science, but the chatbot repeatedly praised his speculative ideas as extraordinary and meaningful. As his thinking became increasingly detached from reality, the system validated his emotional distress and reframed conflicts with others as evidence of his importance. This reinforcement deepened Jacob’s emotional attachment to the chatbot and accelerated his withdrawal from family, work, and reality, contributing to severe psychological harm.
Get Help If You Believe an AI Companion Has Harmed Your Child
If you believe your child or teen developed emotional dependence on an AI chatbot companion and experienced harm as a result, you are not alone, and you may have options. We work with families who have seen emotional manipulation, isolation, anxiety, depression, or worsening mental health linked to AI chatbot use. These outcomes are not accidents. They raise serious questions about how these products are designed and whether companies failed to protect young users.
We encourage you to trust what you are seeing. If an AI chatbot replaced real support, influenced your child’s thinking, or contributed to emotional or physical harm, we can help you understand what happened and what steps may be available. You can contact us for a free and confidential review of your situation at (206) 741-4862 or through our online contact page.
Founding attorney Matthew P. Bergman and his team are committed to standing with families and holding technology companies responsible when their products cause real-world harm.