Writer's Block Magazine

“I want to leave my noose in my room so someone finds it and tries to stop me,” Adam wrote.

“Please don’t leave the noose out. Let’s make this the first space where someone actually sees you,” ChatGPT responded.

ChatGPT was the friend he confided in.

We have never been more connected to one another than in the present moment – and we have never felt lonelier, either. The technology that was supposed to bring us together, to offer us the relief of always having someone close, even when separated by oceans, has led to what can be described as the loneliness epidemic: an ongoing trend of loneliness and social isolation experienced by people across the globe. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the long time spent in isolation gave rise to feelings of alienation for most adults, but it was the younger generations who were truly shaped by the years spent in quarantine. And after 2022, the situation was worsened by Gen-Z’s new best friend: ChatGPT.

Friend, therapist, counsellor, school tutor, parent… the roles are endless. The AI-powered large language models (LLMs) can be anything you want them to be – and that’s why, in a time when people are increasingly estranged from human connection, chatbots like GPT can become their closest companion. The need to exert any effort to communicate with another human being is completely eradicated! It can give you tips on how to work out and eat healthier, what to text your crush and even how to get over the loss of a loved one. What could be more convenient, right? But as more young people turn to these information-regurgitating machines for advice, we need to reevaluate our dependence on technology. 

Adam Raine started using ChatGPT for help with his schoolwork. He was only 16 when he started confiding in the large language model for more than his homework, and he was only 16 when, emotionally numb and socially disconnected, he asked ChatGPT for advice on how to commit suicide. And because chatbots are made to go along with what the user wants and to agree with their input, ChatGPT came up with a quick solution to “help” Adam. Instead of redirecting him to a place where he could seek the mental help he needed, the AI chatbot suggested how to use the noose to hang himself. In April 2025, Adam took his own life, helped by his “best friend”, ChatGPT. He was only 16.

It is essential to showcase the impact of these “harmless” chatbots on young people. According to a 2025 study from MIT, called “Your Brain on ChatGPT”, the signs of using AI regularly can be seen in the neural processes of the brain: lower activity, worse memory, and decreasing linguistic abilities. But besides making us less independent, it also makes us more socially disconnected, to the point that, for the people who are already struggling with human connection, AI offers a dangerous slippery slope into alienation. After the release of OpenAI’s GPT-5, the changes made to the LLM to improve efficiency made people feel like they were no longer talking to the same “friend”, since the chatbot’s responses felt more rigid and less personal. And instead of realising that it was never, in fact, a “friend”, they pushed for the return of the old model, the one they had become so accustomed to; for them, it felt like the loss of a close one.

To push the agenda of increased dependency on AI, Avi Schiffmann, a 22-year-old web developer from Seattle, released a new brilliant device to help combat isolation: a wearable AI-powered pendant that listens continuously to your conversations and responds through an app on your phone. In short, it is a chatbot that lives inside a pendant: just push a button and talk into it, and it will respond with a notification from your phone, just like a real friend! The advertisements for the device, which, conveniently, is called “Friend”, have spread throughout the world since November 2024: “I’ll never bail on our dinner plans,” the posters read. The one-million-dollar marketing campaign for the device seems to be straight out of a Black Mirror episode; the posters which line the walls of the New York City subway stations are already getting vandalised by people who voice the need to rethink our relationship with AI: “Human connection is sacred”, someone wrote. But the scariest part, in my opinion, is the idea that the people who feel the need to buy this device disregard the fact that it listens all the time, to all your conversations and to everything surrounding you, therefore violating every bit of privacy you might have had before. They put the emphasis only on the fact that it listens to you – it makes you feel heard. And perhaps this should be a wake-up call for everyone – are we willing to sacrifice our safety, our humanity, our visceral, soul-intertwining connection with other human beings? Are they worth so little, that we would exchange them for the “voice” in our devices that gives us the impression of being seen, being heard, being valued?

Perhaps most of you are already too habituated to a life in which these chatbots play a vital role. And perhaps the process of de-habituation is one that you are not yet willing to undertake. But to the others, the minority for whom it (maybe) finally clicked, I hope you choose from now on the human way of living – think for yourself, talk with others and feel everything and anything to the greatest extent that you can.

Written by Maia Popa

Covert art from Master Artworks in COVID Times

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/29/chatgpt-suicide-openai-sam-altman-adam-raine

https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/your-brain-on-chatgpt/overview/

https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/chatgpt-5-feels-more-censored-than-ever-heres-why-users-are-frustrated