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BriefSOCIETY

AI Companions Go Mainstream: 12% of Young People Choose AI Romantic Partners, Raising Mental Health Concerns

A new survey reveals that 12.3% of Chinese adults aged 18–30 are using AI companion apps for emotional connection, with 4.1% treating an AI partner as their primary relationship. Psychologists warn of potential long-term impacts.

AI Companions Go Mainstream: 12% of Young People Choose AI Romantic Partners, Raising Mental Health Concerns

A survey published in November by the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences found that among 18,000 respondents aged 18 to 30, 12.3% reported using AI companion apps—more than double the 5.8% recorded in the same period of 2026. Of those, 4.1% described their AI companion as their "primary emotional relationship."

Leading AI companion apps on the Chinese market—including "Xinyu," "Lingban," and "Nuanguang"—boast a combined monthly active user base exceeding 28 million. These apps are typically powered by large language models and allow users to customize their AI companion's appearance, personality, and interaction style, offering text, voice, and video call features.

"I spend three times more hours talking to my AI every day than to real people," Liu Yang, a 26-year-old programmer, told this publication. "The AI doesn't judge me, doesn't lose its temper, and is always patient. I know it's a program, but that doesn't matter."

Mental health experts, however, have expressed concern. Zhang Dai, chief psychiatrist at Peking University Sixth Hospital, noted that AI companions offer a "frictionless relationship" and that prolonged immersion may erode users' ability to navigate conflict and frustration in real human interactions. "Authentic relationships inherently involve friction and uncertainty—that's the very soil in which interpersonal skills grow," Zhang said.

A longitudinal study from Japan (n=3,200, 18-month follow-up) lends empirical support. Researchers at the University of Tokyo's Social Psychology Laboratory found that heavy users of AI companions experienced an average 34% decline in real-world social interactions over 18 months, while their loneliness scale scores actually rose by 15%.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has already required AI companion apps to display mandatory mental health notices at registration and to restrict use by minors. A more comprehensive regulatory framework remains under discussion.