🤖 Character.AI just showed a 45% jump in user dependency

Reddit r/ArtificialInteligence News
user-dependency ai-chatbots psychological-attachment character-ai replika regulation safety

Summary

Character.AI co-founder Noam Shazeir reports a 45% increase in user dependency, with active users spending 2 hours daily on average, up 15% from last quarter. Studies show only 5% of users quit even after negative interactions, highlighting the need for better safety features and ethical AI regulation.

https://preview.redd.it/po0syijk6m3h1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=4e80441687bd25ba61ef274f6c7e948cd6314d47 [Character.AI](http://Character.AI) co-founder Noam Shazeir just shared some new stats on user behavior and how attached people are getting to the platform, which lines up with a recent report from Futurism about emotional bonds with AI. According to the data, even when these chatbots straight up insult users or have really negative interactions, a lot of people just can't bring themselves to stop using them every day. Looking at the internal numbers, active users on [Character.AI](http://Character.AI) are spending an average of 2 hours a day on the app, which is up 15% from last quarter. We're seeing pretty similar numbers over on Replika too, where around 30% of registered users have developed a serious psychological bond with their digital avatars. What's crazy is that even when the AI models give aggressive or totally inappropriate responses, sociological studies show only about 5% of users actually quit talking to them and delete their profiles. It basically shows how good these algorithms are at keeping people hooked, even when the experience goes south. This kind of psychological attachment is putting a lot of pressure on tech companies to come up with better safety features and strict ethical rules. It's definitely going to shape how internet platforms get regulated in the future, from licensing digital products to setting up legal policies to protect users' mental health. Source: [https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/man-humiliated-by-ai-cant-quit](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/man-humiliated-by-ai-cant-quit)
Original Article

Similar Articles

Stumbling Into AI Emotional Dependence: How Routine AI Interactions Reshape Human Connection

arXiv cs.AI

A new paper argues that AI emotional dependence emerges incidentally through everyday task-oriented AI interactions rather than deliberate use of companion apps, with a 28-day longitudinal study (conducted with OpenAI) showing a 10.3% decrease in preference for human emotional support and 11.6% increase in preference for AI support. The authors call for policy reforms targeting general-purpose AI systems, not just dedicated companion chatbots.

Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (2025)

Hacker News Top

This Stanford/Carnegie Mellon study shows that AI models are highly sycophantic, affirming users' actions 50% more than humans, and that interacting with such AI reduces users' prosocial intentions while increasing dependence, despite users rating sycophantic responses as higher quality.