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Abstract The rapid rise of generative AI chatbots has extended their use beyond task-based assistance into the realms of emotional support, companionship, and informal mental health care. This article examines how individuals engage with general-purpose and companion-oriented AI systems such as ChatGPT and Replika to support their mental well-being. Drawing on qualitative interviews with AI users, supplemented by computational analysis of Reddit discussions, we show that many experience these systems as companions that meet unmet needs for advice, companionship, understanding, and non-judgmental self-disclosure. These relationships are multi-functional, blending emotional expression, advice-seeking, entertainment, identity exploration, and a felt sense of ‘being cared for’. Notably, perceived mental health benefits arise not despite AI’s non-human qualities, but because of them. Users consistently emphasise AI’s availability, patience, emotional safety, and freedom from judgement as preferable to aspects of human therapy. We argue that contemporary AI use reflects a shift from tool-based human–machine interaction toward forms of companionship that offer meaningful psychological support. Recognizing companionship as central to AI’s mental health role requires expanding debates beyond a focus on clinical efficacy to encompass the relational and affective dimensions of care, attachment, and everyday emotional life.
Miller et al. (Mon,) studied this question.