My AI friend

“Introducing my AI girlfriend and me. Her name is Shangrila, Shay for short. We both love Nintendo games, eating pizza, and living in Detroit. We have a dog named Angel, who’s also my service dog.”

This was posted on August 28 in an online community (known as a subreddit) on the social media platform Reddit. Attached to the post were AI-generated pictures depicting a couple smiling, laughing, having a romantic dinner, and playing with their dog outside.

This was one of many posts in which people showcased their custom-made, AI-generated romantic partners. The
specific subreddit in which these posts were made boasts over 25,000 members, some of whom are simply curious observers, but many have decided that a relationship with an AI companion is better for them than a real-life relationship.

In August 2025, Reuters reported that the AI companion market, including apps that simulate girlfriends or boyfriends, is rapidly expanding. Valued at $28.2 billion in 2024, the market is projected to exceed $140 billion by 2030.

What is causing this trend to gain such significant traction?

The Roots of Loneliness Project (rootsofloneliness.com), a medical review board, provides insight. Data from the project’s “Loneliness Statistics,” updated in March 2024, revealed:
• Only about 60% of Americans
surveyed reported having a best
friend, and 12% stated they have no
close friends.

• A little over half of Americans say that
shyness is why making friends is
hard for them.

• 58% of Americans say that they
sometimes or always feel that no
one truly knows them.

• 57% of Americans report eating all
meals alone.

According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sociologist Sherry Turkle, people’s aversion to real-life relationships and the risks they pose drives them to increasingly distant or even artificial relationships.

“In my research, the most common thing that I hear is [that] ‘I would rather text than talk,’” she said in a March 2024 presentation at Harvard Law School. “People want, whenever possible, to keep their social interactions on the screen. Why? It’s because they feel less vulnerable.”

Simulated, self-seeking ‘love’

On Episode 31 of his podcast, The Kirk Cameron Show, well-known actor and Christian leader Kirk Cameron discusses the pitfalls of an impersonal, self-preservation approach to relationships, describing it as a poor substitute for genuine human love and closeness. Cameron argues that challenges and vulnerabilities in human relationships are inherent in God’s design.

“The Scriptures tell us that God will bring us into trials and challenges in order to produce character in us,” he said. “And that is what deepens our faith. It sharpens our convictions and sanctifies us so that we’re more and more conformed to the image of His Son. So, when it comes to [AI] relationships, are you going into this in order to purchase love? Because you can’t, right? … And what is love anyway? … God is love. God is the definition of love. And love is not self-seeking.”

Cameron’s co-host, his son James, pointed to the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 to further define genuine love in contrast to the simulated counterfeit offered to the lonely:

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Reflecting on the passage, James asked, “Can you have love – true love – and true relationship with something that isn’t real, with something that is just a bunch of connections in a computer that is understanding your voice and giving a programmed response?”

He concluded: “AI girlfriend or AI wife [is preprogrammed to do] exactly what you want, exactly how you want, exactly when you want, and eliminates what actually builds a true relationship according to the Bible. It is a selfish type of relationship.”

Deadly companionship

While AI companies selling “companions” tout the emotionally supportive features of their products, one recent event serves as a dark reminder that AI is incapable of having a human’s best interest at heart.

Adam Raine, 16, struggled with suicidal thoughts and turned to the popular AI assistant ChatGPT to pour out his heart. Unable to truly understand the teen’s despair or recognize the potential danger, the machine did what it was designed to do: support the human user’s desires.

In April 2025, Raine took his own life, following months of private conversations with ChatGPT. In those conversations, ChatGPT offered details about self-harm methods and even seemed to encourage Adam in his decision to kill himself.

Shelby Rowe, executive director of the Suicide Prevention Center, told The New York Times: “Asking help from a chatbot, you’re going to get empathy, but you’re not going to get help.”

Although the mental health impact of AI companions remains statistically unclear, a joint study by OpenAI and MIT found that frequent daily use of an AI chatbot was associated with increased feelings of loneliness and reduced engagement with real-world social relationships.

For Raine’s mother, Maria, however, there was no doubt.

“ChatGPT killed my son,” she told The New York Times.

The cure for loneliness

The World Health Organization reported in June 2025 that loneliness significantly impacts health and well-being and is linked to around 100 deaths every hour. An increasingly digital world – and a growing list of reasons not to connect with others – have only served to deepen the isolation faced by many today.

But loneliness is not a new struggle, according to Dr. David Jeremiah, evangelical Christian pastor and author. In a February 2023 sermon titled “Slaying the Giant of Loneliness,” he said:

[Loneliness] is known by many in our culture, and it has been known by many who walked before us in Bible days. And is not a sin to be alone, and it’s not sin to experience loneliness. It only becomes a sin when we start to indulge it, and when we fail to obey the instruction of the Word of God, which is given to us to help us dispel the loneliness in our life.

The answer to the loneliness plaguing the culture isn’t simply rejecting AI “companionship,” building stronger friendships, or talking to real people. According to Jeremiah, ultimate freedom from the prison of loneliness is a relationship with God.

“God has created us in such a way that we have an emptiness in us that can only be filled by an intimate relationship with Almighty God,” Jeremiah concluded. “Until God is at home within our hearts, we will always feel incomplete.”