Experts have sounded the alarm over a growing use of AI systems such as ChatGPT to help with people’s loneliness.

The systems are increasingly being relied on as a kind of confidant or friend by a number of people. But a new report in the British Medical Journal warns that relying on such chatbots could be a cause for concern, especially in young people.

They also call for new strategies to help address the loneliness and isolation that would bring people to speak to chatbots for such a reason in the first place. Doctors have long warned that loneliness is in itself a public health concern – and two years ago the US Surgeon General said that it was an epidemic of a similar concern as smoking.

In that context, “we might be witnessing a generation learning to form emotional bonds wi

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