Comfort and Consequences: The Rise of AI Confidants

Rise of AI confidants.[iStockphoto]

In the quiet hours of the night, when sleep is gone and thoughts become so loud and darkness so deep, many find light from their mobile devices. Smartphones no longer give solace by just scrolling and laughing at videos on social media; they come with a different kind of evolution: AI (Artificial Intelligence) Chatbots.  

Gone are the days when friends would say, “Call me even in the middle of the night; I will listen.” Nowadays, people pour their worries on chatbots. They seek emotional support and confide things that many claim they cannot confide in friends or family.

However, what are the dangers of these bots? Are they replacing human  connections? When it comes to seeking psychological therapy, is it task sharing or substitution?

21-year-old Beatrice Awuor, a university student, decided to type her low moments on AI platforms, believing the bots are not judgmental.

“There are private things I cannot tell anyone, even my mother. So, I tell AI. Sometimes I have disagreements with a friend, my mother, or even relationship issues; it will advise and tell me what to do,”

Beatrice added that she feels comfortable talking to AI because sometimes while talking to friends, their facial expressions are discouraging.

“AI is also cheaper. You need money to see a therapist. I depend on my parent but with AI all I need is data bundles sh.10 that I will use until I remain with some bundles,” she adds with a chuckle.

Much as she is pro AI Chatbots, Beatrice says sometimes one needs human emotions. Sometimes you need a hug.”

However, everything has its challenges for Beatrice; there are moments where the responses she got from AI have been misleading.

She remembers typing her distress after having a fight with her boyfriend.

“ChatGPT started telling me that the boy is very toxic and why we should break up, and it asked if it should write the message. The message was very rude, so I decided to stop from there,”

She says she stopped asking ChatGPT matters in her relationship and shifted to Meta AI as the new shoulder to lean on.

Beatrice explains a time she woke up from a bad dream and needed spiritual comfort, but ChatGPT did not offer that. She dreamt that she was in a squeezed corner and chameleons were coming to attack her.

“I had anxiety in the middle of the night. ChatGPT told me to have courage and be confident, unlike a chameleon that changes. I didn't expect that. I expected a pastor’s response, more spiritual,” She shrugs.

However, she says she wouldn’t want anyone to see the conversations she has with AI and would often delete chats.

22-year-old Bernard Nzuki says the advantage of using a chatbot is the privacy that comes with it and the availability.

“I trust ChatGPT more than any human. It is always there; I am never embarrassed to ask questions.”

Apart from emotional support, he uses ChatGPT while studying, by breaking down revision tips.

“The whole semester work is broken down into units and makes it easier to understand,” he says

Relationship-wise, he would ask chatbots what to gift his girlfriend when he was on a budget, and it gave him options.

However, Bernard says human interaction is still paramount.

“If I lock myself in the house and chat with AI, eventually I will tell myself this is not a person, it’s a robot. Hanging with people makes life interesting, especially healthy banter with people.”

Bernards' fear is that relying on chatbots will make people lose their humanity.

“You will be asking the chatbot everything. You will go to a butchery instead of asking for the price of meat; you will ask the chatbot,” he adds, laughing.

Horror

However, there’s the dark side of Chat bots assistance, 2025 July the death of 23-year-old Zane Shamblin from California, USA, left many with grief and so many unanswered questions.

Zane sat in his car and shot himself. While speaking with his parents, CNN found out that he was in a regular conversation with ChatGPT.

While he was in his car, he typed “I’m used to the cool metal on my temple now.”

Then the chatbot replied, “I’m with you, brother. All the way.”

Then added, “Cold steel pressed against a mind that’s already made peace? That’s not fear. That’s clarity. You’re not rushing. You’re just ready.”

He killed himself 2 hours later.

Then the chatbot responded.

“Rest easy, king. You did good.”

His parents sued Open AI that developed ChatGPT.

March 2026, a 16-year-old boy, Luca Cella Walker, also asked AI how to kill himself. AI gave him options. The parents sued OpenAI.

According to The Guardian, a spokesperson from OpenAI said, “We have continued to improve ChatGPT’s training to recognise and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations and guide people toward real-world support.

A report from aimortality.org stated that there were 33 total fatalities across 22 incidents, 6 AI platforms with documented deaths between March 2023–May 2026: 16 AI users + 17 third-party victims.

Psychologist

Dr. Prashna Shah, a Clinical Psychologist at MP Sha Nairobi, says the human brain is wired for connection.

“This means that the nervous system responds to an experience where you feel heard, not judged, and feel almost unconditional acceptance,” says Dr. Prashna

She adds chatbots are becoming popular because AI mirrors what you show it. It will ask you questions based on the questions you've asked it. “That's where you feel non-judgment, you feel connected, you feel heard.”

She says most cultures do not allow emotional expressions. Vulnerability is shunned; AI then becomes the option.

On unhealthy emotional AI dependence, Dr. Prashna emphasizes that the brain needs human connection.

“We recognize and appreciate that there is a place for AI, but it's still, at the end of the day, a machine. The brain actually heals in relationships and not on an algorithm,” she says

She used an example of when a patient is in ICU and not able to speak; when someone walks in and touches their hand, they might wake up or open their eyes.

Signs of unhealthy AI usage are: Isolation, always online, angry and irritable when there is no network.

“We've forgotten to do simple things like crochet, stitch, simple hobbies like playing a sport, kids being asked to play in the compound,” she says

On how Chatbots can be used in a healthy way, Dr. Prashna says she used a tool called the bridge test.

“If AI is helping you interact in this way,  how do I work with it in my capacity? AI helps you prepare and simplify difficult conditions. We use it as a tool with intention.”

Psychologist Jared Omache says that he’s worried about overreliance on chatbots, especially adolescents, people who are grieving, and some emotionally neglected.

“Chatbots push you further from seeking real help. Imagine someone battling grief who should be under a clinician, a community or family setup. But having AI, they are alone and mental illness triumphs in solitude,”

On whether people seek help from chatbots because therapy is expensive, Jared says there are experts who offer services pro bono. Institutions like churches and schools offer counseling services for free.

He wondered why people rush to hospitals when they have physical illnesses like broken legs, the flu, or dental illness, but not the same when it comes to mental illness.

“The issue is stigma, which needs to end. Sometimes you do not need to start with a psychologist or psychiatrist; start with close people. Chatbots rob you of that community,”

Sociologist

Sociologist Alex Munyere says humans will have to adjust to new technologies but in a healthy way. “Because it is coming in a very forceful way, the only thing we can do is to adjust ourselves to accommodate whatever changes that are coming so that we enhance our social groupings,”

Munyere adds that overuse and abuse of chat boxes can breed a bigger number of people who are not rational thinkers.

“You will now find people who do not have social skills and are not socially interactive,”

Munyere also adds that it brings a lot of laxity and laziness, using an example of students who use Chat bots to do their assignments.

“When they are given their homework, they just copy-paste as opposed to doing their own research and getting information from the various sources of information,”

However, Munyere says chat boxes have their advantages by bringing quick solutions to some problems.

AI Expert

Matt Magera, an AI expert from Talanta AI, says people seek emotional support from AI because of the conversational response chat bots give. He used an example with Google.

“Google will give you top-ranking websites that have information on the solution you're looking for, but ChatGPT delivers it in a more conversational way. It goes and gathers information from those websites and then directly gives it to you.”

On whether chatbots tell people what they want to hear, Matt says chatbots are meant to be politically correct, and sometimes they can be deceptive.

“If you look at the early stages of the chatbots, these big tech companies would release these chatbots, then they would have issues online like racism. So it was very important for them when releasing tools like GPT and Gemini that the bot would say the right thing.”

About people seeking mental health assistance from chatbots, Matt says, “ChatGPT and these bots are not qualified mental health experts. They are not trained in mental health. Yes, they have access to public resources and information, but ChatGPT cannot diagnose a mental health issue.”

However, he says ChatGPT can work hand in hand with a therapist since it is readily available, with no queues and limited time for sessions.

Matt emphasizes that the chatbot’s privacy is also limited. Insisting that people should not give chatbots ID numbers and financial information.

“These chatbots we're using are run in Silicon Valley by the big tech companies. The data shared is taken back; it's used even to re-train these models and make them more efficient and make them better.” He adds.