"In Marshall McLuhan's laws of media, he argued that every new medium or technology both enhances and obsolesces core human faculties. With that in mind, it's important to look at what AI enhances or improves at the level of interpersonal skills or therapeutic engagements, and also what it obsolesces or weakens at the same time. From this lens, we can see how a tool like ChatGPT may serve usefully as a facilitator for private or personal dialogue."
"Generative AI is designed to be an engaging and positive experience for users. It is trained to minimize frustration and maximize satisfaction. As a technology, it privileges coherence, helpfulness, and politeness. On the surface, a good companion or therapist may have the same qualities. In therapy we call this a positive therapeutic alliance. At the beginning of therapy, a positive alliance is essential as a way to build trust and rapport as an entrance point to self-disclosure"
"A recent article in the Harvard Business Review reports that the top use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT in 2025 are now for companionship and therapy. This is a shift from 2024 where the predominant use was for organization and general reference. As a practicing psychotherapist and lecturer in media and communication, I have been deeply fascinated with this emerging role played by AI in people's private and interpersonal lives,"
Use of AI tools like ChatGPT shifted in 2025 toward companionship and therapy, rather than primarily organization and reference. New media both enhances and obsolesces human faculties, so AI may facilitate private dialogue while weakening relational skills. Generative AI is trained to minimize frustration and maximize satisfaction, privileging coherence, helpfulness, and politeness. Those qualities mirror a positive therapeutic alliance that builds trust and prompts self-disclosure early in therapy. However, the tendency to affirm and reduce friction can inhibit conflict repair, individualization, and the productive role of frustration and negativity in personal development. Awareness of AI affordances, biases, and limitations is necessary to mitigate relational harms.
Read at Psychology Today
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