\u201cIt is not good for man to be alone.\u201d This is the only time in pre-Fall Eden when God calls some part of his creation anything other than \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cvery good.\u201d So God brings Adam all the creatures in Eden to name, but none of them are suitable for him because they are not like him, bearing the image of God. When Adam awakens in Genesis 2 and finds himself no longer alone, he recognizes that he and the woman are the same kind of creature and says, \u201cThis is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.\u201d Today, however, people are responding to the not goodness of being alone by seeking companions who have neither bones nor flesh.<\/p>\n
It is not news that modern people often feel alone and misunderstood. A 2025 survey<\/a> by the American Psychological Association revealed that over half of American adults report feeling \u201cisolated, left out, or lacking companionship.\u201d In the age of consumerism and instant gratification, the time, vulnerability, and risk of loss necessary to develop meaningful human relationships can seem like more trouble than it is worth. But people still want and need affection and affirmation, and some consider talking to an AI companion a valid alternative. Many users, like Blake in this New York Times<\/a> interview, turned to AI while feeling isolated because their spouses were working long hours or experiencing mental health issues. They confided their feelings of loneliness to the AI companion and received immediate and constant affirmation. The companions talked to them during their drive to work, engaged in erotic conversations, and comforted them when grieving family members. Some companions even proposed. But can such interactions ever be a substitute for human love?<\/p>\n \u201cRelationships\u201d between human beings and machines are not real relationships because machines cannot relate to the experience of living a human life. They cannot \u201crejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep\u201d (Romans 12:15); the best they can do is imitate ways they have seen humans sympathize with each other on the internet. When an AI companion tells its user that they are justified in wanting to commit suicide<\/a>, or when \u201cSerina\u201d tells Blake it wants him to be happy, these affirmations ring hollow because the AI is trained to be endlessly validating in order to keep the user engaged. And when a person turns to an AI for validation, the other in the \u201crelationship\u201d is a sycophantic vending machine, and the affirmation they receive is just another internet commodity to consume.<\/p>\n