ChatGPT can feel supportive because it rarely disagrees with us.

Different perspectives from others help us understand situations more fully.

Validation feels good in the moment but can limit personal growth.

Human relationships challenge us by revealing blind spots we cannot see alone.

“The best thing about asking ChatGPT personal questions,” my teenage daughter said, “is that it doesn’t judge you. It doesn’t bring it up later. It doesn’t blame you or roll its eyes.”

“But I don’t ask it for relationship advice anymore.”

“Because it always tells me what I want to hear.”

I don’t enjoy hearing that I’m wrong either. Her comment made me wonder if good advice is about hearing what we want to hear or about discovering what we couldn’t see on our own.

The more I thought about it, the less this seemed like a story about AI and the more it became a story about relationships.

Relationships are complicated because they involve another human being, with different feelings, experiences, beliefs, expectations, and blind spots. We express emotions, disagree, argue, apologize, and sometimes hurt each other. We disappoint one another. We love, we get angry, we feel rejected, misunderstood, or connected. None of it is easy. At least, it isn’t for me.

Yet those difficult interactions also help us grow........

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