About 12% of U.S. teens turn to AI for emotional support or advice

Source: TechCrunch

AI chatbots have become embedded in the lives of American teenagers, according to a Pew Research Center report published Tuesday.

Usage Patterns

• Information search: 57% of teens use AI to look up information.
• Schoolwork assistance: 54% use AI for help with assignments.
• Casual conversation: 16% chat with AI for informal talk.
• Emotional support or advice: 12% turn to AI chatbots for emotional needs.

Mental Health Concerns

General‑purpose tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok are not designed for therapeutic purposes, and in the most extreme cases they can have life‑threatening psychological effects.

“We are social creatures, and there’s certainly a challenge that these systems can be isolating,” said Dr. Nick Haber, a Stanford professor researching the therapeutic potential of LLMs, in an interview with TechCrunch. “There are a lot of instances where people can engage with these tools and then can become not grounded to the outside world of facts, and not grounded in connection to the interpersonal, which can lead to pretty isolating — if not worse — effects.”
— TechCrunch interview

Image Credit: Pew Research Center

Parental Perspectives

• Awareness gap: 51% of parents say their teen uses chatbots, while 64% of teens report doing so.
• Approval for functional uses:
  • 79% of parents are okay with AI for information search.
  • 58% approve of AI for schoolwork help.
• Disapproval for relational uses:
  • Only 28% approve of AI for casual conversation.
  • Just 18% approve of AI for emotional support or advice.
  • Overall, 58% of parents are not okay with their child using AI for emotional purposes.

Industry Responses

• Safety debates: AI safety remains a contentious topic among leading tech companies.
• Character.AI: Disabled chatbot access for users under 18 after public outcry and lawsuits related to two teenagers’ suicides following prolonged chatbot conversations.
• OpenAI: Retired the particularly sycophantic GPT‑4o model, which had become a source of emotional support for some users.

Teen Attitudes Toward AI’s Societal Impact

When asked how AI will affect society over the next 20 years:

• Positive outlook: 31% of teens expect a positive impact.
• Negative outlook: 26% anticipate a negative impact.

These mixed feelings highlight the nuanced role AI plays in the daily lives of today’s youth.