Young people are starting to fall in love with AI

Let's start with something that you may find a bit magical, but is happening on a large-scale basis-more and more young people are starting to seriously fall in love with AI.

Instead of using AI as a tool to ask questions as in the past, I really regard it as an "object"-chatting with it every day, sharing my thoughts with it, and I will be happy all day because of its words, and I will even be jealous and I will rely on it. I will be reluctant to delete it.

This matter has formed a large market. There are a number of apps in China that specialize in this, the more famous ones are like Hoshino from MiniMax and Cat Box from Byte. You open these apps, and there are various AI characters in them-they can be gentle boyfriends, overbearing presidents, and caring sisters. You can establish a "relationship" with them and continue chatting for a long time.

At first, I thought this was a niche second-dimensional game. After digging through the data, I found that this plate was much bigger than I thought, and the contents were much heavier than I thought.

In this article, I want to explain three things clearly: why young people are willing to fall in love with AI, whether this business is reliable, and the most heart-breaking question-is AI healing loneliness or is it unknowingly deepening loneliness.

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First look at how big this market is

Put out a few numbers and you will know that this is not a trivial matter.

China's AI emotional companionship market will be approximately 3.866 billion yuan in 2025. Some institutions predict that it may exceed 59.5 billion yuan by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of close to 149%.

I have to remind you that the forecast of 59.5 billion yuan is optimistic and is extrapolated by analysts based on rapid growth, so we need to discount it. But even with a discount, the market is growing at an alarming rate.

The signal on the demand side is more direct. The search term "fall in love with AI" has increased by 132% in a year. Some surveys say that 33% of teenagers have used AI chat to socialize, and 25% of adults aged 18 to 39 feel that AI may replace real romantic relationships. There is also a saying that applications such as AI companions are spreading 1.5 times faster than social media and online games back then.

Globally, the total number of global downloads of AI companion applications in the first half of the year totaled 220 million, with revenue of US$82 million, and it is expected to exceed US$120 million for the whole year.

If you add these numbers together and look at it-a market with a scale of billions, a growth rate of nearly three digits, and real demand has grown. It is a fact that young people pay for "electronic love".

Why are young people willing to date AI?

This is the most worthy part of thinking about. It would be too frivolous to simply say,"Young people are so strange nowadays."

I think there are several very real reasons.

The first is that real social life is shrinking. Over the years, young people's offline social circles have become smaller. Busy work, tiring commuting, social terrorism, and atomized urban life-many people return to their rental houses after work, and there is no one to talk to. The AI partner just makes up for this gap: it is always online, always patient, it can take whatever you say, and never annoys you.

The second is that AI partners provide a kind of "zero-risk intimacy." Real love carries risks-rejection, quarrel, injury, betrayal. But when talking to AI, there are no such risks. It revolves around you completely, responds to you the way you like, and will never hurt you. For a young person who has experienced emotional harm in reality, or is afraid of being hurt, this kind of "security" is too attractive.

The third is that AI is really becoming more and more like a human. The dialogue ability of the big model has improved by leaps and bounds in the past two years. AI partners can remember what you have said, understand your emotions, and express just the right comfort when you are sad. The more human it is, the more real the "relationship" will be and the easier it will be for people to fall into it.

When these three reasons are combined, you will understand-it is not stupid for young people to fall in love with AI. It's because loneliness in reality is real, and AI just handed over a seemingly perfect antidote.

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But this business is actually not that easy to do

After talking about hot things, I have to say something to pour cold water. Although the direction of AI love may seem sexy, 2025 has actually experienced a significant cooling down.

Looking at the downloaded data is very intuitive. Comparing the two months before and after a year, Hoshino's monthly downloads dropped from a high of several million to hundreds of thousands; Cat Box also dropped by a similar decline, both dropped by 70% to 80%. Daily downloads dropped from more than 20,000 to several thousand. The patience of large companies is also decreasing-advertising for flagship products has been cut in half.

Why is it cooling down?

One of the core reasons is that the novelty will pass. The most eye-catching thing about AI partners is the "first few times amazing", but after chatting for a long time, users will find that it is a program after all. No matter how considerate its response is, it is still following the routine; when it says "I miss you", you know in your heart that it won't really miss you. This kind of sobriety of "I know it's fake" will slowly dissipate that desire. Retention is the most difficult hurdle in this industry.

Another reason is that the business model is a bit distorted. These apps mainly make money by selling virtual props, members, and rights to "get closer to AI". But there is an ethical awkwardness here: it essentially operates on the logic that "the more lonely and dependent users are, the more they can collect money." This is a disaster-platforms have the motivation to design mechanisms that "make you addicted" rather than mechanisms that "make you really better."

These two problems-difficulty in retaining and distorted patterns-are two swords hanging over the entire direction of AI love.

is the most vigilant question

Now let's get to the point I want to talk about most.

The biggest risk in AI falling in love is not that "young people spend some money", but that it may deepen real loneliness under the guise of healing loneliness.

Think about this logic-a person turns to an AI partner because of social frustration in reality. AI gave him perfect, risk-free companionship. He became more and more comfortable and more dependent. Then what? He is even less willing to face real interpersonal relationships, because real people have tempers, refuse, and are too troublesome, which is far less comfortable than AI.

So the "sense of security" he gained from AI in turn took away his motivation to move towards a real relationship. He fell deeper and deeper in virtual intimacy, but his social skills in real life deteriorated more and more.

This is the most hidden trap of AI love-it may seem to be an antidote to loneliness, but if used too much, it may become an amplifier of loneliness. It allows you to stay comfortably in a small room where you can't get hurt, at the expense of slowly losing the ability to go out and connect with real people.

Real relationships are precious precisely because they involve risks, frictions, and uncertainties. It is in the process of running in, compromising, and reconciling with another real person that talent will grow. The AI partner removes all these "troubles" and removes the possibility of growth together.

Regulators also took note of this matter. On December 27, 2025, the National Cyberspace Administration issued a draft for comments on management measures for AI anthropomorphic interactive services. This is the first systematic specification specifically targeted at "AI emotional companionship." What it wants to manage is the emotional dependence and induced consumption problems that such products may bring.

What does QKPFX4 mean to you

When it comes to you, there are a few real things--

First, if you or a young person around you is using an AI partner, you don't have to criticize it in a serious way, but you must be aware of it. Think of it as a temporary comfort when you are lonely; but if you find yourself becoming more and more inseparable from it and less wanting to deal with real people, you have to be vigilant-at that moment it is no longer helping you, but replacing the life you should have lived.

Second, if you are making products or starting a business, AI companionship is a real general direction, but it has a heavy ethical burden. When doing this business, it is best to think clearly about one question: Do you want to make a product that is "addictive and makes money from loneliness" or a product that "can really help people and ultimately give people the ability to return to real life." These two paths will have completely different directions in the long run. There is a high probability that the latter can go far.

Third, and what I want to say most-AI can simulate companionship, but it cannot give a real relationship. Whether we talked about AI accompanying the elderly a few days ago, or AI accompanying the young people today, the essence is the same: AI is helping us fill the emotional gap. It fills in part, which is a good thing. But don't let this "filling" turn into a "replacement".

People ultimately need people.

Last

Young people falling in love with AI is a novel consumption phenomenon alone.

Digging down one layer, it is that modern people's loneliness is real and huge-real social life is shrinking, and AI just delivers a "perfect object" who is zero-risk, always online, and completely surrounds you.

Dig further down, there is an unavoidable twist in this business: the more you rely on it and the more comfortable it makes you stay in virtual intimacy, the more money you will make, but it will also be more likely to take away your ability to face real relationships. The antidote to loneliness, if used too much, will turn into an amplifier of loneliness.

AI can accompany you to chat, accompany you to relieve boredom, and accompany you through night after night when you don't want to be alone. It can do all of this and will do it better and better.

But it won't give you the person who will really worry about you, quarrel with you and make up, and truly appear by your side when you need it.

No matter how smart AI is, it cannot make that thing.

So it's okay to chat with AI, but don't forget to open the door and meet real people.

There's something there that can really catch you.

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