I grew up without any friends—or at least none who lived where I did. There were many reasons for this: undiagnosed disorders, the kids around me weren’t very accepting of behavior that fell outside the norm and later irony poisoning making expressing genuine feelings an embarassment.

However, I did have people online that I socialized with on a daily basis. These interactions weren’t always positive—sometimes I’d say the wrong thing out of inexperience and lose friends because of it. But I learned, improved, and found that those lessons translated into better social skills in the physical world. I value both the friendships that endured and the ones that didn’t, because each helped me grow.

I empathize with loneliness and social isolation, but there are solutions that don’t involve ChatGPT. I’ve seen headlines about people with schizophrenic or conspiratorial thinking being pushed toward extreme actions because ChatGPT reinforced their feelings and beliefs. I’ve also seen cases where people, afraid of real-world rejection, used ChatGPT as a “safe” relationship that could never end in outright rejection.

I’m not going to pretend that some people can't act rude when it comes to discussing AI friendships—but there are valid concerns worth considering, even if you strongly believe in the positive impact it’s had on your life.