Long-Term Effects of AI Companions on Loneliness

Determine how using AI companion applications over substantially longer timescales than one week affects users’ loneliness, including whether initial reductions persist, diminish, or change over extended periods.

Background

The studies in the paper demonstrate that AI companions can reduce loneliness in the short term and over a one-week period. However, the durability and trajectory of these effects over much longer intervals remain unknown.

Establishing the long-term impact is essential for evaluating the sustained utility of AI companions as scalable interventions for loneliness and for understanding any potential diminishing returns or unintended consequences of prolonged use.