AI Can Comfort You, But It Can’t Replace a Friend
We’re living in a very digital time. Millions of people are talking to machines every day. Some even say those machines understand them better than humans do. From mental health chatbots to AI “friends”, artificial companionship is being quietly positioned as a solution to one of the most pressing public health issues of our time: loneliness.1 But can we actually find a connection with machines that can’t feel anything at all?
While this question often stirs up strong reactions and beliefs based on intuition, research is still uncovering the real impact of AI companions, positive or otherwise. In a 2026 paper, Ruo-Ning Li and colleagues examined the effectiveness of chatbots against humans in reducing loneliness and found that, in the long run, human connection is the best medicine we have during times of solitude.
About the Author
Samantha Lau
Samantha graduated from the University of Toronto, majoring in psychology and criminology. During her undergraduate degree, she studied how mindfulness meditation impacted human memory which sparked her interest in cognition. Samantha is curious about the way behavioural science impacts design, particularly in the UX field. As she works to make behavioural science more accessible with The Decision Lab, she is preparing to start her Master of Behavioural and Decision Sciences degree at the University of Pennsylvania. In her free time, you can catch her at a concert or in a dance studio.
