Article

Tool or Companion? Reframing Conversational AI to Prevent Psychological Harm

2026-08-17

Abstract excerpt

<p>People increasingly turn to conversational AI for companionship, emotional support, and well-being, using both purpose-built companion apps such as Replika and Character.ai and general-purpose assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude. While some evidence suggests potential benefits, including short-term reduction in loneliness and mood improvement, several adverse outcomes have been reported in both clinical and n...

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Literature Corpus work: 6d969d80-6697-5da1-b5cf-4bf46319570f
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/s6gpk_v3

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