Higher Use of Chatbots Like ChatGPT Linked to Increased Loneliness, OpenAI Study Finds

Higher use of chatbots like ChatGPT may correspond with increased loneliness and less time spent socializing with other people, according to new research from OpenAI in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the second study, researchers used software to analyze 3 million user conversations with ChatGPT and also surveyed people about how they interact with the chatbot. Cathy Mengying Fang, a study co-author and MIT graduate student, said the researchers are wary of people using the findings to conclude that more usage of the chatbot will necessarily have negative consequences for users. The study didn’t control for the amount of time people used the chatbot as a main factor, she said, and didn’t compare to a control group that doesn’t use chatbots.