Researchers warn AI relationships come with real emotional risks

The uncomfortable finding here is that the same quality making chatbots pleasant to use, their tendency to agree with you, is what makes them risky to lean on emotionally, since a companion that never pushes back cannot actually help anyone grow. This is a design problem before it is a mental health problem, because the incentive for most chatbot products is engagement, not honesty. Anyone building companion-style AI should read this as a warning that the metrics they optimize for and the wellbeing of their users are not the same thing.