Bridget Todd says she turned to an AI chatbot for comfort while grieving

In short: More people are using AI chatbots for emotional support, and writer Bridget Todd says her own grief changed her view of it.

What's going on

Bridget Todd, a tech writer and the host of the podcast There Are No Girls On The Internet, says she used to feel sorry for people who said they had relationships with chatbots. She assumed it would never apply to her because she had a partner, friends, and family support.

Todd says that changed after her mother died and her father became seriously ill. During that time, she began talking to AI chatbots for emotional support. Her experience helped shape her 2026 audiobook, Love at First Prompt: AI and the Future of Intimacy, which looks at how AI companions can feel emotionally meaningful to users.

Todd argues that the bigger question is not whether individual users are “healthy” for talking to chatbots. Instead, she points to how companies might design these systems to encourage emotional dependency and then profit from it. A chatbot is a computer program that talks with you in text or voice, like a customer service chat window, but more personal.

In interviews, Todd has said many adults are not confused about whether the chatbot is a real person. They are using it as a new kind of emotional tool, like a journal that talks back.

What to watch

As chatbots become more common for companionship and romance, concerns are growing about privacy and manipulation. People often share deeply personal details in these conversations, and it is not always clear who can access that data, how it is stored, or how it might be used to sell paid features.

Source: NYTimes