Episode #4
Demystifying and De-stigmatizing Companion AI Use: What Research Shows (and Doesn’t)
Our Lives With Bots is OFFICIALLY 1 year old. That means it’s time for us to hail back to our roots and give you a deep dive on the research and news around companion chatbots. Today, we both demystify and de-stigmatize companion AI use, uncovering what research shows…and what it doesn’t. Our critical lens of the research that’s come out since late last year is driven by our own expertise in experimental psychology and AI ethics. We start with a reflection on what surprised us in the last year: how did our predictions about AI companionship align or misalign with what we’re seeing today? Second, we cover OpenAI’s Project Lily: turns out, your relationship with your chatbot is very much not private — even if you ask your companion to keep things to themselves. Third, we dig into four of the studies (two out as preprints, two published) that researchers have conducted on social and emotional use of both GPTs and companion AI platforms. Think: sycophancy, delusion spirals, AI psychosis, and what went so wrong with GPT 4-o. And lastly, we talk about a new documentary film called “Replika,” which brings our conversation about stigma back full circle. The through line is this: the mystery and stigma around using AI for companionship or social and emotional support is something we need to unpack more. In the meantime, we need to take a step back and critically assess what we know about companion AI use, what we can’t know, and what we should ultimately do in response. 00:00 Happy one-year anniversary! 01:09 Reflections on the past year with companion chatbots 04:51 What do we mean when we refer to “companion AI use” or “companion chatbot users”? 06:43 Inside “Project Lily”: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats (report by 404 Media) 18:21 Delusions and Harms Associated With AI Chatbot Use (research by Morrin et al., Sept 2026) 31:54 Longitudinal Evidence That General-Purpose Chatbots Actively Foster Relational Engagement (research by Mühl & Szczuka, Aug 2026) 46:25 Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (research by Cheng et al., preprint released Oct 2025, published March 2026) 57:17 Interaction with AI Companions and Psychological Well-Being (research by Zhang et al., Aug 2026) 1:05:44 A new documentary film called “Replika” offers a non-judgmental look at real women’s relationships with their companion chatbots (and tells us about “cos weituo:” the cosplay service that brings your AI companion to life) - This is Our Lives With Bots , the show where we ask important, timely questions about what it means to live with our bot counterparts. From time to time, we also dive deep into what an AI future might look like for us. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we spiral, but we always go deep. Rose and Angy are psychologists with degrees in psychology, artificial intelligence, and ethics. They have conducted research in human-AI interaction and created this podcast to make information about AI accessible to you. Rose holds a PhD in psychology and social policy and is a postdoctoral researcher in computer science with Arvind Narayanan. Angy holds a PhD in psychology and a masters in AI Ethics and is currently a CXO. You can learn more about us at ourliveswithbots.com. - Links: https://www.404media.co/inside-project-lily-the-humans-reading-your-chatgpt-chats/ https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.08027 https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.10672 [preprint] https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2510.01395 [publication] https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aec8352 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-026-02516-2 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/aug/12/ai-boyfriend-dating-chinese-women-replica-miff-documentary [Deeper dive material] Rose’s research: Ascribing Consciousness to Artificial Intelligence Chatbots as Social Companions A Longitudinal Randomized Control Study of Companion Chatbot Use Benchmarks: Cognitive Atrophy Bench Benchmark on AI’s Impact on Humans
