The Qualitative Impacts of the Usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a Coping Mechanism against the Loneliness Epidemic

The loneliness epidemic is a crisis among the younger generations. This loneliness epidemic has raised concerns in the field of social science, as isolation is prone towards development of mental health issues. It is also concerning that a trend emerged regarding the increase in the amount of teenagers socialising with AI chatbots more than other humans. This study aims to find out how AI chatbots directly correlate to the loneliness epidemic. How AI can manage the effects of the loneliness epidemic by being used as a coping mechanism as it will be easier for people with social anxiety to communicate with. The researchers conducted a questionnaire to determine the demographics of the sample to find how widely used AI chatbots are as a coping mechanism and their correlation to their social life. Furthermore, they facilitated interviews to discern the reasons behind the correlation. They also reviewed works made by credited organisations, which further investigated the connection between AI chatbots and users’ digital and social isolation. The results revealed that AI Chatbots do not directly contribute to the loneliness epidemic. If used over a certain amount of time, it will create negative impacts. AI Chatbots as a coping mechanism is feasible against the loneliness epidemic, but requires monitoring to be able to be done properly.