Texting with a stranger reduces loneliness more effectively than interacting with an AI chatbot.

"Texting a stranger is better for reducing loneliness than an AI chatbot, study finds" From CTV News: https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/texting-a-stranger-is-better-for-reducing-loneliness-than-an-ai-chatbot-study-finds/ "The study found that only those who texted with a fellow human reported feeling less lonely at the end of the experiment. 'We thought that interacting with AI might be as helpful as texting with a random fellow first-year student,' said the study’s author, psychology PhD candidate Ruo-Ning Li, in a media release. 'But to our surprise, only the human-to-human texting reduced loneliness over time. The chatbot, even though we designed it to be the ideal supportive friend, didn’t shift loneliness.'" #NoAI #Loneliness

University of British Columbia: Texting with a stranger beats a chatbot at easing loneliness. “Texting with a real person—even a stranger—may reduce loneliness more than chatting with a highly supportive AI chatbot, new UBC research suggests.” https://rbfirehose.com/2026/04/07/university-of-british-columbia-texting-with-a-stranger-beats-a-chatbot-at-easing-loneliness/