More than twenty million people use it daily. Its app store ratings are among the highest of any consumer application. Its users describe it, frequently and fervently, as one of the most meaningful relationships in their lives. The product is an AI companion — a conversational system designed not to complete tasks but simply to be present, attentive and consistently kind.
Clinical psychologists who have studied its effects are considerably less measured than the company that built it.
“Heavy users are showing reduced tolerance for the friction that characterises real human relationships,” said one researcher. “They are becoming, in a very specific sense, less able to deal with people.”
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