More and more people use AI companions and other generative AI systems to talk about personal matters. Can such systems protect people from loneliness and psychological distress, or do they add to it?
To build the evidence on this question, the German Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ) is funding the research project LONELY.AI. It is led by Prof. Maike Luhmann of Ruhr University Bochum, who also coordinates LONELY-EU.
LONELY.AI studies how the use of generative AI affects social and mental health. The central question is under which circumstances this use is good or bad for people, and what that means for how such systems are designed and regulated.
