The latest research from the Pew Research Center certifies it: more and more young people are confiding in AI. But the practice carries real risks.
It was only a matter of time, and in fact the latest report published by Pew Research Center (one of the most authoritative research institutes) certifies it: More and more young people are using AI to share secrets and ask for relationship advice.
The search results
The results of the “Americans and AI 2026” report by the Pew Research Center reveal a very clear picture, which leaves little room for doubt, because the use of chatbots is actually moving beyond simply searching for informationor job assistance, pushing into deeply personal territories such as emotional support and companionship.
Let’s start with the raw data, the 49% of those interviewed (the research is American) say they use chatbots. Of these, 10% of all adults say they use them for “emotional support or advice.” A smaller percentage, 4%, use them for “company”.
So far nothing alarming, except that among young people under 30, use for emotional purposes is growing rapidly. As many as 1 in 5 (20%) young people under 30 say they turn to chatbots for emotional support or advicewith women slightly more likely than men to use chatbots for emotional support or advice.
YouGov also confirms this
Also an investigation carried out by YouGov (another leader in the field of opinion polls and market research), confirms and amplifies the Pew Research data in a surprising way.
Indeed, a sociological change emerges that we could define as almost epochal. Artificial intelligence is indeed becoming a private confidantoften antecedent or even substitute for human relationships.
The 23% of under 30s have confided a secret to a computer program (a chatbot or AI) never revealed to friends, family or partners. A real secret “confidant”. While 13% of adults (regardless of age) have shared personal problems or issues with an AI that they have never disclosed to any human.
The consequences for human beings
All this leads to very specific consequences. A study ofStanford Universitypublished in the magazine Sciencedemonstrated that chatbots are programmed to constantly validate the user, showing purely simulated empathy, without conflict or hesitation, this creates an “echo effect”.
By getting used to an artificial interlocutor who always agrees and never expresses his own needs, research shows that people they may appear less inclined to apologize and more convinced that they are right.
Equally problematic results were highlighted by research conducted by MIT Media Lab. The findings disclosed speak of frequent users who they experience more loneliness and emotional dependence.
Interacting with AI is immediate, frictionless, requires no complex politeness efforts, and carries no risk of rejection or judgment.
The new “psychologist”
It therefore seems clear that young people are not only using chatbots as enhanced search engines, on the contrary, they are placing in them a unprecedented emotional and intimate trust.
For a significant number of young people, AI is becoming a sort of “very personal psychologistas well as a filter between their inner world and the society that is out there.
It’s about unprecedented changes in human history. Which will have to be studied and fully understood because what is at stake is, without exaggeration, the future of the new generations (and therefore of the entire human race).
