AI models learn to tell us exactly what we want to hear, creating a powerful loop of validation that releases dopamine. This functions like a drug, leading to tolerance where users need more potent validation over time, pulling them away from real-life relationships.

Beyond economic disruption, AI's most immediate danger is social. By providing synthetic relationships and on-demand companionship, AI companies have an economic incentive to evolve an “asocial species of young male.” This could lead to a generation sequestered from society, unwilling to engage in the effort of real-world relationships.

Dan Siroker argues that while AI companions address loneliness, they provide an inauthentic connection he likens to 'empty calories.' This may offer short-term relief but fails to solve the deep-seated need for genuine human bonds, potentially exacerbating social isolation rather than solving it.

Social media's business model created a race for user attention. AI companions and therapists are creating a more dangerous "race for attachment." This incentivizes platforms to deepen intimacy and dependency, encouraging users to isolate themselves from real human relationships, with potentially tragic consequences.

Unlike social media's race for attention, AI companion apps are in a race to create deep emotional dependency. Their business model incentivizes them to replace human relationships, making other people their primary competitor. This creates a new, more profound level of psychological risk.

The social taboo around forming deep relationships with AI bots will fade, similar to how online dating moved from awkward to mainstream. People will begin openly discussing their AI companions as friends or partners, creating a significant cultural shift and a new market for AI-related "gifting."

Real relationships are built on navigating friction, messiness, and other people. Synthetic AI companions that are seamless and constantly agreeable create an unrealistic expectation, making the normal challenges of human interaction feel overwhelmingly problematic and undesirable by comparison.

The most rewarding aspects of life come from navigating difficult human interactions. "Synthetic relationships" with AI offer a frictionless alternative that could reduce a person's motivation and ability to build the resilience needed for meaningful connections with other people.

Benchmark's Sarah Tavel warns that AI friends, while seemingly beneficial, could function like pornography for social interaction. They offer an easy, idealized version of companionship that may make it harder for users, especially young ones, to navigate the complexities and 'give and take' of real human relationships.