There’s a difference between solitude and isolation.

Solitude is a voluntary encounter with a quiet, uninterrupted space. I recommend regular periods of solitude (including time away from electronic devices) to enhance focus and mental and physical health. How frequently you take these breaks, and how long each lasts, is up to you, but it’s good to take a break from the psychic noise, especially if you live a busy lifestyle or reside in a large city.

Isolation is something altogether different. Isolation is an involuntary separation from others and has significant deleterious health consequences. It is currently a silent epidemic and is about to get much worse.

Loneliness is a subjective experience that typically accompanies isolation, the emotional feeling of having a deficit of companionship and contact. A person can live alone without feeling lonely, and conversely can feel profoundly lonely in a marriage, home, or work environment.

Artificial Intelligence as Human Companion

A recent study puts the number of unique users—not prompts—who access artificial intelligence at 2.4 billion per month. Not all of those people are actively seeking companionship, but three emerging trends are of concern:



First, a recent study of 1060 U.S. adolescents ages 13–17, represented by a nationally representative survey of 1,060 teens found that one-third explicitly use AI for social interaction or relationships. In addition, one-third of the teens who used AI companions had discussed something “important or serious” with AI instead of a human.

Second, there is anecdotal evidence that users who come for non-emotional use of AI find it compellingly “human" enough to stay for casual conversation, as they would with a person. This “accidental” discovery of AI “friends” portends an increase in the number of people using AI for meaningful interaction as the total number of messages increases.

And the rate of increase is staggering:

A study of ChatGPT’s consumer plans alone shows a more than 400-percent increase in messages from July 2024 to July 2025 alone. That comes to something like 75 billion messages in 30 days in that period of time.

Lastly, there is the inevitable use of artificial intelligence for sexual interaction. Pornography has been a major factor in technological advances in audiovisual media for many decades, but if you need a published study, in the June 2026 Archives of Sexual Behavior, Döring and colleagues surveyed 2,658 German adults ages 18–75 in November–December 2024, asking about sex-related use of AI during the preceding 12 months. More than twenty percent of men and nearly eight percent of women reported use for sexual activities. In the 18-39-year-old cohort, the number was more than 33 percent.

Alarmingly, In a separate French survey conducted by Ifop for Gleeden, 46 percent of respondents who had experienced erotic AI interactions reported having preferred virtual masturbation to sex with their partner.

You don’t need a graduate degree in clinical psychology to understand the impact of this trend, not only on mental and physical health, but on human reproduction rates.

The Silent Epidemic

A very recent—as of the publication date of this article—analysis outlines the scope of the issue.

A study of more than 50,000 respondents, representing approximately 256 million adults, brings the epidemic into sharp focus:

Overall, nearly 13 percent of U.S. adults surveyed reported “frequently” (characterized in the study as “usually” or “always”) feeling lonely.

The rates of loneliness were highest among people aged 18-29; annual household incomes of less than $25,000; those who had never been married; and those who live alone. The highest rate of people reporting frequent loneliness—nearly 35 percent—was from respondents who identified as transgender.

Almost 21 percent of the respondents reported that they did not receive the social and emotional support they needed. The study authors called this “perceived social isolation.”

A 2025 study conducted by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) found that 40 percent of adult respondents over the age of 45 classified themselves as “lonely,” up from 35 percent in 2010 and 2018.

Globally, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2025 analysis estimated that one in six people experiences loneliness, and estimated social isolation in up to one-third of older adults and one-quarter of adolescents.

The Impact of Isolation on Mental and Physical Health

Isolation does more than cause feelings of loneliness.

Involuntary separation from needed social contact reveals associations with a laundry list of serious ailments:

- 3.6 times the prevalence of stress.

- 3 times the rate of mental distress.

- 2.4 times the prevalence of clinical depression.

- A 31 percent greater risk of all-cause dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and cognitive impairment.

- A 29 percent greater risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).

- A 32 percent greater risk of cerebrovascular accident (“stroke”).

- Disturbances in sleep, stress regulation, and immune system function.

- Increases in inflammation and blood pressure.

- A 32 percent greater risk of all-cause mortality.

Worse still, isolation frequently begets more isolation:

Depression, anxiety, disability, and illness restricts connection. The isolated person can become hypervigilant to the possibility of social threats, such as the possibility of rejection. Approaching an unfamiliar situation and unfamiliar people can be perceived as negative or even unsafe. In this state, an unanswered message or terse reply can be perceived as rejection.

Can AI Help Decrease Isolation and Loneliness?

Elon University’s September 2026 report found that 27 percent of adult Internet users in the U.S. used AI for personal, emotional, or social support. In that cohort:

31 percent considered their AI chatbot to be a “friend.”

59 percent felt that AI provided the support they needed.

53 percent turned to AI for advice on interpersonal relationships.

Companies are marketing AI solutions such as Replika, specifically designed and promoted to foster a relationship between human and AI.

Does it work? Studies are beginning to quantify the results:

De Freitas et al. (2026) found indications of immediate relief. The study reports that AI companionship could temporarily reduce loneliness, and that “feeling heard” played an important role. Across a week of use, relief followed individual conversations but did not produce a lasting reduction in baseline loneliness.

Fang et al. (2025) performed a four-week controlled study involving 981 participants and more than 300,000 messages. Participants who voluntarily used the chatbot more showed consistently worse psychosocial outcomes; greater trust and social attraction were associated with dependence and problematic use.

Ciriello et al. (2026) surveyed 277 active “companion users” found that associations between loneliness and AI intimacy varied by attachment style and age.

A paper published in the April 2026 issue of Journal of Consumer Research found that AI companions repeatedly reduced loneliness immediately after conversations, but those benefits did not accumulate into a lasting reduction in baseline loneliness.

Are the interactions intentionally designed to increase AI use?

De Freitas et al. (2025) analyzed 1,200 “farewell” interactions across six companion apps. Roughly 43% of the messages contained tactics the authors classified as emotional manipulation, including guilt appeals and attempts to discourage departure. Experiments showed that such messages could substantially extend engagement.

Can AI Help With the Silent Epidemic of Isolation and Loneliness?

AI is, by all estimates, here to stay. More people are spending more time interacting with these computers and the trend is rapidly accelerating.

Rates of isolation and loneliness are increasing.

It is well-established that isolation can have a catastrophic impact on mental and physical health. What is unresolved is whether AI can help.

We know that the data support a growing intersection of artificial intelligence with emotional companionship, and a credible concern that the use of AI will—to some degree—displace human contact.

What we don’t yet know is whether if the advent of AI will relieve some of the negative effects of isolation in the long run, or exacerbate them.

References

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