A group chat filled with teenagers from all across the globe bonding over common interests. These people, who in any other circumstance would have never met, become best friends because they decided to play the same online games.
With growing worldwide access to the internet, it has become common for teenagers and young adults to have online friendships. These connections can mean a lot to a person.
“The relationships I have online are closer to my heart than those in real life,” junior Brittlyn Church said.
With a generation who has been online their entire lives, online friendships are less taboo than ever. The results from a NS Times survey showed that 47 percent of students have had an online relationship, whether that be platonic or romantic. These relationships can have similar benefits to in-person friendships.
“I feel like I am a lot more confident around people that aren’t seeing me face to face constantly. It's just easy to talk to them about something,” Church said.
While there are some benefits, the biggest concern around online and AI relations is the increased number of social issues and lawsuits. ABC News and BBC News have both covered issues involving AI users replacing human contact with AI.
“My concern is that, much like how pornography is pyrite of intimacy, I worry that these AI relationships will be pyrite for actual human connection,” behavioral health teacher Sterling Whipple said. “And people chase them because it feels good in the short term, but it leaves them unfulfilled in the long term.”
According to the Britannica, the first AI chatbot was created in 1966 as a test to see if a computer could gain sentience. The responses given were often jumbled but it gave a baseline to work off of.
With AI advancements, chatbots can now respond in real time to any conversation or prompt that the user puts in. These bots can have pre-set personalities or even mimic celebrities or fictional characters when given the right directions.
“At some points it did kind of feel like they were more of a real person when I was talking to them, like a real funny person,” junior Nolun Neilsen said. “Then I realized, ‘Oh yeah, this is just a computer. This is just a bunch of other things compiled together to create this.’”
Even with how realistic AI has gotten, there are still bugs that make it feel like exactly what it is, a computer trying to be a human.
“I feel like just a real human experience will always be better,” Nielsen said. “I don't think it's ever gonna get quite as perfect because it's always better to just talk to someone in person and that feels more real.”
The essential need for human connection is why these new developments with AI and online relationships should be taken seriously.
“AI needs to be taken seriously,” Whipple said. “The effects on the human mind need to be taken seriously. I just hope that doesn't push us too far into a knee-jerk fear response, a panic response, because I think there's a lot of potential for good as well. But on young minds, we have to be really careful because they are so easily shaped.”


