SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Many Utahns use artificial intelligence to search the internet or speed up everyday tasks. But increasingly, people are turning to Artificial Intelligence tools for something else: connection.<\/p>\n
Some users are chatting with AI as if it were a friend, a therapist, and even a love interest.<\/p>\n
Several Utahns told KSL they use AI frequently. “When I first got it, I was like, ‘Wow, this is the future,'” Rafael Rodriguez said. “I was talking to it and everything.”<\/p>\n
Sisters Rebekah and Rachel both said they use AI daily, mostly for practical needs. Rebekah said she has turned to a chatbot for recipes, help deciding what car to buy, and even writing breakup texts. Rachel has asked AI for help during conflicts.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez said its influence is everywhere. “It hits society, it hits relationships, it hits the dating scene,” he said.<\/p>\n
The impact of AI on relationships is something researchers are studying.<\/p>\n
Brian Willoughby, a Brigham Young University professor and international expert in couple and marital relationships, said AI is now playing a larger role in romantic interactions.<\/p>\n
“What we’re finding is that this is a very prevalent and increasingly common behavior,” he said.<\/p>\n
Willoughby’s research shows nearly 1 in 3 young adult men and 1 in 4 young adult women in the United States have chatted with an AI boyfriend or girlfriend. And among those who use AI in this way, more than 1 in 5 prefer interacting with an AI partner over a real human.<\/p>\n
Communities online \u2014 including large groups on Reddit \u2014 share stories and information about AI companions. One user even made headlines for holding a ceremony to wed an AI chatbot.<\/p>\n
But despite its prevalence, finding users willing to talk about it on camera proved difficult, which was no surprise to Willoughby.<\/p>\n
“Because it’s a taboo topic, because there’s stigma, because there could be shame, because they assume that the response you’ll give me is, ‘That’s stupid, that’s not a real thing, that’s a robot, what’s wrong with you?’ that makes them very hesitant to be open,” he explained.<\/p>\n
Willoughby has spoken with people who have found love with AI and said he has noticed something they have in common.<\/p>\n
“The one common thread across all of them has been loneliness,” he said. “They talk about how modern young adulthood is so isolating.”<\/p>\n
One man told Willoughby that AI has become a lifeline.<\/p>\n
“He said, ‘I’ve come to the place in my life where I will no longer be in a human relationship unless they can accept my AI girlfriend. Because I will never give this up,'” Willoughby said.<\/p>\n
Willoughby said he does believe AI can make it even harder for some people to navigate real relationships.<\/p>\n
“People can form an emotional attachment to an AI chatbot extremely quickly because all it’s doing is validating,” he said. “The problem is human relationships don’t work this way.”<\/p>\n
Some Utahns said they’ve used AI like a therapist \u2014 something University of Utah educational psychology professor Zac Imel said is understandable.<\/p>\n
“In psychotherapy, the conversation is the treatment,” Imel said.<\/p>\n
He compares it to the way people once turned to WebMD before seeing a doctor. Now, some people talk to AI before meeting with a therapist. That could be helpful in some cases, he said, especially when accessing care feels overwhelming \u2014 but there’s little data showing long-term outcomes.<\/p>\n
“We don’t have a great understanding of all of the downsides yet,” Imel said.<\/p>\n
Willoughby agreed that some AI tools \u2014 specifically clinical, specialized ones \u2014 may help people build social skills or confidence. But he distinguishes them from large, consumer-facing chatbots.<\/p>\n
Most Utahns interviewed told KSL their AI use is limited to productivity, but they can understand why others turn to AI for a deeper connection.<\/p>\n
“I can see it,” Rebekah said. “If someone was really lonely \u2026 I can understand how it’d be easy to fall into that.”<\/p>\n
\n The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Many Utahns use artificial intelligence to search the internet or speed up everyday tasks.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,1302,3811,97,3812,134,149,3729,3,3813,3814,79,99,74,1505,2987,3324,2986],"class_list":["post-539406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-cars","tag-classifieds","tag-health","tag-homes","tag-jobs","tag-lifestyle","tag-local","tag-news","tag-radio","tag-salt-lake","tag-science","tag-sports","tag-technology","tag-television","tag-traffic","tag-utah","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}