Not a Silver Bullet for Loneliness: How Attachment and Age Shape Intimacy with AI Companions

TL;DR

This study explores how individual differences in attachment style and age influence the formation of intimacy with AI companions, revealing complex patterns that challenge the idea of AI as a universal loneliness remedy.

Contribution

It introduces a nuanced model showing how loneliness, attachment insecurity, and age interact to shape artificial intimacy, supported by empirical survey data.

Findings

Loneliness reduces intimacy for secure users but increases it for avoidant and ambivalent users.

Older adults report higher intimacy levels even with lower loneliness.

The results highlight the sociotechnical nature of artificial intimacy, influenced by psychological and demographic factors.

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) companions are increasingly promoted as solutions for loneliness, often overlooking how personal dispositions and life-stage conditions shape artificial intimacy. Because intimacy is a primary coping mechanism for loneliness that varies by attachment style and age, we examine how different types of users form intimate relationships with AI companions in response to loneliness. Drawing on a hermeneutic literature review and a survey of 277 active AI companion users, we develop and test a model in which loneliness predicts intimacy, moderated by attachment insecurity and conditioned by age. Although the cross-sectional data limits causal inference, the results reveal a differentiated pattern. Loneliness is paradoxically associated with reduced intimacy for securely attached users but with increased intimacy for avoidant and ambivalent users, while anxious users show mixed effects. Older adults report higher intimacy even at lower loneliness levels. These findings challenge portrayals of AI companions as universal remedies for loneliness. Instead, artificial intimacy emerges as a sociotechnical process shaped by psychological dispositions and demographic conditions. The study clarifies who is most likely to form intimate relationships with AI companions and highlights ethical risks in commercial models that may capitalise on user vulnerability.