India, Sept. 5 -- Like most good lines, this one was crafted to grab attention: "A quarter of Americans now have an AI friend." Punchy and provocative. But what are its implications? "My educated guess is that among AI Companion users in any given country or culture, these findings would probably look similar," Lee Rainie, Director of the Imagining the Digital Future Center at Elon University wrote back in an email. These numbers had emerged in his research paper on the Rise of AI Companions.

A quarter of Americans? His answers were refreshingly candid. Yes, he acknowledged, the report does say that 27% of adult internet users report having significant social and emotional interactions with AI. But only a third of that group, roughly 8% ...