In the long term AI depresses us

HELSINKI (EFE).— Virtual assistants based on artificial intelligence (AI) have the ability to offer short-term comfort, but their prolonged use can aggravate the user’s anxiety, according to the conclusions of a study by Aalto University in Finland published yesterday.

The research focused on the use of Replika, an AI chatbot designed as a virtual friend, mentor or romantic partner, to analyze how this type of technology influences mental health and social life.

The researchers reviewed the Reddit social network activity of nearly 2,000 active Replika users over two years, comparing their language a year before and a year after they started using the virtual assistant, and combined this data with in-depth interviews with 18 people.

The study, one of the first of its kind in the world, showed that while interacting with an AI assistant helped users, in the long term there was an increase in signs of distress in the messages they posted on Reddit.

“On the one hand, the posts increasingly revolved around their relationships, but on the other hand, they contained more signs of loneliness, depression and even suicidal thoughts than those of the control group,” said Yunhao Yuan, one of the authors of the work.

The research also revealed that the use of AI-based virtual assistants would negatively affect people’s ability to function socially in the real world.

The scientists stressed that their findings do not offer a definitive answer as to whether it is beneficial or harmful to turn to AI for emotional support, although they warned of the danger of doing so on a prolonged basis due to its long-term mental health risks.

The work will be presented at the conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI 2026) to be held in Barcelona next week.

At a glance

Caution

“We are now realizing the mistakes we made by embracing social media without questioning it. With AI, we have to be smarter and more cautious, because we still don’t know what effects these systems have on us,” said Talayeh Aledavood, a professor at Aalto University.

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