Felienne Hermans (@felienne.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy)

Vast Numbers of Lonely Kids Are Using AI as Substitute Friends Lonely adolescents are replacing real-life friendship with AI, and experts are worried about how easily these chatbots integrate themselves into the lives of children. A new report from the English nonprofit Internet Matters, which supports efforts to keep children safe online, has found that children and teens are using programs like ChatGPT, Character.AI, and Snapchat's MyAI to simulate friendship more than ever before. Of the 1,000 children aged nine to 17 that Internet Matters surveyed, some 67 percent said they use AI chatbots regularly. Of that group, 35 percent, or roughly a third, said that talking to AI "feels like […] https://futurism.com/lonely-children-ai-chatbots