AI companions offer comfort by eliminating emotional friction; that’s dangerous.

Psychological growth depends on rupture and repair, not frictionless harmony.

The relationships that shape us most are the ones that challenge us.

The use of AI companions is rising. nCompanies like Character.AI and Replika explicitly offer AI companionship for humans, and demand for their services is growing. At the same time, people are increasingly using general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude as friends and even romantic partners.

This isn’t surprising. AI companions offer something that no human relationship can: intimacy without risk. ChatGPT never takes out a bad day on you. Claude doesn’t remember mistakes you made 10 years ago. AI companions listen without interrupting. They always understand you and they never get angry with you.

This ease, this lack of friction, is attractive, because real relationships are hard. We all know this from experience, whether that experience is in our romantic lives or in the professional domain. People misunderstand each other other all the time. We irritate each other, anger each other, and occasionally fight with each other. All of this is inevitable in a human relationship, and none of it is fun.

So when a technology arrives that appears to offer the benefits of a relationship without any of the difficult parts, of course people are drawn to it.

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