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AI Friends and Lovers: Promise and Peril

  • Thomas R. Verny M.D.--Psychology Today
  • published date: 2026-09-01 15:13:12 UTC

You can have colleagues, friends, and family and still lack the emotional intimacy you crave. That makes AI companionship a very inviting substitute. Remember—it's a machine.

OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public in 2022. Instead of learning commands or writing code, you simply talked to it. This created a radical shift in our culture that we are just beginning to appreci… [+6229 chars]