India, Nov. 4 -- As a therapist my work has focused on intimate relationships and family dynamics. In the years since 2015, loneliness, disconnection, feelings of not being seen or heard whether by family, friends or intimate partners is one of the core themes that has emerged in therapy sessions.

In the last two years, mention of general purpose chatbots and then those which offer companionship has found a mention by clients, friends and other mental health professionals who are seeing similar trends in their practice. In social gatherings, those who have explored, researched these narratives have talked about various needs AI bots are meeting for them.

Here are some examples of what I have heard across various scenarios which describe...