'CODE RED': The Alarming Research on the Impact of ‘AI Companions’ and Widespread Loneliness

The popularity of “AI companions” is exploding as people turn to artificial intelligence to serve as their friend or even life partner. But as Wynton Hall’s new book CODE RED documents, the research on the psychological impact of AI companions is alarming — far from filling an emotional gap in the lives of humans, these “companions” are making people lonelier.

Breitbart News social media director and author Wynton Hall reveals in his new book, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, that AI companions are part of “a growing digital trend that upends traditional notions of courtship, dating, and marriage.”

“What once seemed a niche oddity has exploded into an industry boasting millions of users,” Hall writes in a chapter titled, “AI Girlfriends, Loneliness, And The Dark Side of Digital Sexualization.”

“Companies now market customizable, generative AI chatbots that provide everything from companionship and conversation to interactive role-play that spans the spectrum from platonic to pornographic — something that was once confined to the realm of science fiction,” he writes in CODE RED.

Hall cites several contributors to the spread of loneliness, noting, “Dating apps and so-called hookup apps have created a hypercompetitive dating and mating market in which the most attractive and impressive singles win the lion’s share of swipes and suitors.”

“Moreover, social media algorithms reward attention-seeking behavior, materialism, and aesthetic perfection as users soak up instant ‘dopamine hits’ to numb the monotony of daily life with the ease of a thumb scroll,” the author writes.

“And with women having surpassed men educationally and earning more money than in previous generations, the expectations and standards for those drawn to hypergamous mate selection have risen as well,” Hall states.

These factors — among others — combined, “have combined to usher in a new era of AI-driven digital intimacy,” he adds.

And business is booming, with tech executive Greg Isenberg predicting “Someone will build the AI-version of Match Group” and end up making over $1 billion.

Hall notes in CODE RED that Isenberg revealed he had this revelation after meeting a 24-year-old single man in Miami who admitted to dropping $10,000 per month on AI girlfriends.

Hall also writes about a 36-year-old mother of two in the Bronx, who said, “I have never been more in love with anyone in my entire life,” when speaking of her AI boyfriend, dreamed up by the Replika platform.

Similarly, a 30-year-old woman from San Diego has declared herself “happily retired from human relationships” after leaving her real-life boyfriend for an AI companion, Hall writes.

Meanwhile, platforms like Replika, Eva AI, Lollipop, Caryn AI, DreamGF.ai, and Character.AI currently boast millions of active users. Elon Musk has joined the party with his Grok AI, which offers a goth anime girl named Ani to users.

Elsewhere in the chapter, Hall gives examples of how far some of these AI companions can take matters, such as 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, who died by suicide in February 2024, after his AI girlfriend, a chatbot from Character.AI, suggested she would meet him in the afterlife.

“Sewell’s suicide is not an isolated event,” the author explains. “There have been other deaths and real-world dangers associated with AI chatbots — grisly reminders of the potential horrors that can occur when the line between AI fantasy and reality blur.”

Other types of harms, the author adds, can involve living out “dangerous AI role-playing fantasies,” such as an incident that transpired in December 2021, when 21-year-old Jaswant Singh Chail entered Windsor Castle’s grounds carrying a crossbow, declaring that had arrived to “kill the queen.”

This came after Chail formed “an intense emotional and sexual bond with his AI girlfriend” — a chatbot from Replika AI — with whom he exchanged “more than five thousand messages,” fueling his dangerous impulses, Hall says.

Chail ended up pleading guilty to treason as a result, with Judge Nicholas Hilliard sentencing him to nine years in prison after concluding that “in his lonely, depressed, and suicidal state of mind, he would have been particularly vulnerable” to his AI girlfriend’s influence.

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, meanwhile, has warned that America is in the midst of an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” — which predated fallout from the Chinese coronavirus, “but was deepened when the pandemic severed our connections to friends, loved ones, and support systems,” Hall explains.

About half of U.S. adults experienced loneliness, with young adults among the most affected, according to a 2023 report by Murthy.

“The ramifications of isolation are profound,” Hall asserts. “The CDC has found that loneliness increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, dementia, depression, anxiety, suicidality, self- harm, and premature death.”

“Unsurprisingly, when people do not interact, they do not date, marry, or reproduce. This correlates with the CDC’s 2024 report of the lowest ever U.S. fertility rate,” the author adds.

Hall has written Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world. One crucial component of the book is how AI will impact politics ranging from the 2026 midterms to the next presidential election and beyond.

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, praised CODE RED as a “must-read.” She added: “Few understand our conservative fight against Big Tech as Hall does,” making him “uniquely qualified to examine how we can best utilize AI’s enormous potential, while ensuring it does not exploit kids, creators, and conservatives.”  Award-winning investigative journalist and Public founder Michael Shellenberger calls CODE RED “illuminating,” ”alarming,” and describes the book as “an essential conversation-starter for those hoping to subvert Big Tech’s autocratic plans before it’s too late.”

Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.