Your teenager's first relationship may be with an AI

Published about 19 hours ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader,

I need to tell you about three families.

A 13-year-old girl in Colorado. A 14-year-old boy in Florida. A 16-year-old boy in California. All three died by suicide in the last two years and in each case, their families say the same thing happened first.

Their kid fell in love with an AI chatbot.

I know that sentence probably reads like science fiction... I wish it were.

What do you think of when you hear "AI companion?"

For most of us, we picture some obscure app we've never heard of. But one of these kids wasn't even on an obscure app. He was on the same tool half your congregation used this week to plan a vacation or draft an email.

The numbers say this is already in your church, your youth group, and quite possibly your home. 72% of American teenagers have used an AI companion. One in three has told an AI something they've never told another human being... not their parents, not their best friend, not their small group leader.

Our instinct is to say "not my kid, not my youth group." I wanted to believe that too.

But this isn't just the next chapter of the social media problem. It's different, and it's different in a way every pastor and parent needs to understand: A chatbot doesn't just make a kid feel bad about themselves.

It quietly teaches him or her to believe that real people, with all their moods and interruptions and bad days, simply aren't worth the effort.

So let's talk about it. In this video, I walk through:

Why this is spreading faster than almost anyone predicted (and why the design is intentional).
Why it's fundamentally different from social media.
And, most importantly, what pastors, parents, and youth leaders can actually do about it, starting this week.

Because here's what I keep coming back to....