TL;DRYoung adults are using AI chatbots to draft dating lines, party icebreakers, and real-time in-person responses. Psychologists warn it creates “self-mistrust.” A relationship coach suggests capping AI rehearsal to once a week.
A growing number of young adults are using AI chatbots to script not just their texts but their in-person conversations, the Wall Street Journal reported. Niharika Abbaraju, a 20-year-old cancer researcher, uses ChatGPT at work for research, but off the clock it becomes her conversation coach, drafting dating app lines, party icebreakers, and real-time responses to whoever is standing next to her. When a conversation drifts toward a book she has not read, she pulls up an AI summary to fake her way through it.
She is not alone. The pattern extends across a generation of young adults who let chatbots steer their dating messages and social interactions, particularly those with social anxiety. The results are sometimes obvious: Austin personal trainer Andrea Wallace noticed a date’s texting grammar suddenly improved, a tell. Northwestern student Lucas Dvorak’s girlfriend told him using AI on her felt “creepy.” Kalin Lincoln, 20, uses ChatGPT to cool down angry emails and prep notes before difficult conversations, but says it backfired at least once, giving her the opposite advice she needed.
