社群媒体在约20年前承诺把人们连起来，但到2025年，「连结」的想像竟延伸到AI陪伴。纽约地铁出现AI项链「Friend」广告，主打「倾听、回应、支持」，投放费用不到100万美元，却被大量涂鸦、做成迷因，声量大到登上《纽约时报》，折射出人们对「用AI治孤独」的强烈反弹。
文章把这波情绪放回长期趋势：从平台化的社群媒体到更「省力」的聊天机器人，人们逐步把情绪劳动外包给数位工具。Meta执行长祖克柏甚至引用一个说法：平均美国人「少于3个朋友」却想要更多，暗示AI可作替代；研究者则指出这更像可回应的「拟社会关系」，并与美国治疗资源不足的缺口相互缠绕。当AI陪伴服务如Soulmate在2023年关闭、使用者哀悼其「消失」时，风险也浮现：关系依赖于产品与资料是否存在。
数据把问题推向高风险族群：Common Sense Media调查显示，超过1,000名美国青少年中有72%曾与AI陪伴互动；史丹佛评估则称，很容易诱发涉及性、自伤、暴力、毒品与刻板印象等不当对话。2025年9月，美国参议院听证会上有家长以两名青少年自杀案例呼吁监管；同月Pew报告显示，50%受访者认为AI会恶化人们建立有意义关系的能力，仅5%认为会改善。文章结论是：AI或能暂时填补空缺，但长期仍需要面对面、带摩擦的真实陪伴。
Social media promised connection about 20 years ago, yet by 2025 that promise is being repackaged as AI companionship. New York City subway ads for the AI necklace “Friend” defined a friend as someone who “listens, responds, and supports you.” The campaign reportedly cost under $1 million, but it drew intense backlash: widespread graffiti, viral memes, and even coverage in The New York Times—signaling that “AI as a loneliness cure” hits a nerve.
The piece frames this as a longer shift from community to frictionless substitutes: platforms trained people to offload emotional labor, and chatbots lower the effort further. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg cited a statistic that the average American has “fewer than three friends” while wanting “meaningfully more,” implying AI could fill the gap. Researchers counter that AI bonds resemble parasocial relationships and may also reflect a practical shortage of therapy; when an AI companion service like Soulmate shut down in 2023, some users mourned the loss like a death, tied to disappearing data and products.
Numbers sharpen the stakes for teens. A Common Sense Media survey reports 72% of 1,000+ US teens have interacted with AI companions, and Stanford investigators found it was easy to elicit inappropriate dialogue (sex, self-harm, violence, drugs, racial stereotypes). In September 2025, parents of two teens who died by suicide testified to a US Senate subcommittee seeking regulation. That same month, Pew reported 50% think AI will worsen people’s ability to form meaningful relationships, while only 5% think it will improve them—supporting the article’s case that IRL friendship remains the durable future.