Exclusive | Teen boys are choosing AI girlfriends over real-life relationships the effect on them can be disastrous, expert says

In 2024, a tech bro predicted that “AI girlfriends” would create a $1 billion business — and it seems that youth are busy building on that dark prophecy.New research suggests Generation Alpha boys would rather have a robo-girlfriend than risk rejection and the formative challenges of an IRL relationship.The study, conducted by Male Allies UK, surveyed 1,000 boys aged 12 to 16 and found that a hefty 85% of them have spoken to a chatbot, 20% know a peer who is “dating” an AI chatbot, and over a quarter prefer the attention and connection of a bot partner to a real, human-to-human relationship.More than half — 58% — said AI relationships are easier because they can “control the conversation.”As disconcerting as the research is, experts say the appeal of AI relationships, which offer ceaseless response and zero rejection, is clear.“AI validates, affirms, never tires, never pushes back.For an adolescent boy still assembling a sense of self, that kind of frictionless attention can feel like intimacy,” Nicholas Velotta, head of relationship research at Arya, told The Post.Velotta points to the clear lure of AI for Gen Alpha guys, a demographic navigating two conflicting cultural narratives about masculine identity.“On one side, they’re told that to be a man is to dominate, to “looksmaxx,” to project an alpha status.

On the other hand, they’re told that men are the architects of most of what’s gone wrong in our gender dynamics, and that the appropriate response is to sit down, be quiet, and make space.”According to Velotta, AI offers a sense of safety for young men trying to reconcile and define themselves within these impossible extremes.“It is not hard to understand why a young man finds comfort in a technology specifically engineered to welcome him, never judge him, and appear to understand him, especially when the human voices in his life are either demanding something impossible or dismissing him entirely,” he said.A May 20...