When social media first came out, said Nieuwhof, people were curious but skeptical about it, wondering what the point of it was. “All of a sudden, social media becomes this [phenomenon],” he said. Now, years later, we are becoming aware of the harmful consequences that social media is having on many and its connections to loneliness, anxiety, and various mental health problems.
“It’s absolutely clear that the proliferation of social media and life online is killing the human spirit and the human soul and the human mind at unseen rates,” said Nieuwhof. “Well, that’s with static images and with videos. What happens when AI talks back to you? What happens when you create a beautiful custom avatar?”
“I’ve been married for 35 years,” he shared. “I have a great wife. She has a husband who is imperfect. I have a wife who is imperfect. She has bad days. I have bad days. Your AI girlfriend never has a bad day, knows you better than you know yourself, knows exactly what to say.”
Consider that AI is designed to keep people engaged as long as possible with follow-up questions to users’ initial queries. “It is just like social media,” Nieuwhof said. “It’s capturing your eyeballs, capturing you. And the model is to engage you as long as possible.”
“So as we look, [the] No. 1 use in 2025 of…artificial intelligence is therapy and companionship,” said Nieuwhof, citing research from Harvard Business Review.
Noting his concerns about the impact on teen mental health, Nieuwhof mentioned Matthew and Maria Raine, who are suing OpenAI on the grounds that ChatGPT coached their son on how to die by suicide.
“And suddenly, three months later, you have [OpenAI CEO] Sam Altman coming out, saying, we’re going to put some parental controls in,” said Nieuwhof. “And, you know…like, really?” Another similar AI tragedy has to do with a teenage boy in Florida who died by suicide after developing an “abusive and sexual” relationship with a chatbot from Character.ai.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Nieuwhof said, “and my thesis is that AI is going to make the mental health implications of social media look like the kiddie pool.”
“So I see all of these issues now facing pastors,” he said. “You have a different kind of unemployment and a greater scale of unemployment than we’ve ever expected. You’ve got deepfakes going. You’ve got good versus evil. You’ve got unintended consequences. You’ve got this whole artificial intimacy.”
“If porn was a killer of marriages,” he added, “just wait for AI chatbots to really take over mainstream. And the majority of people who create a custom chatbot have a sexual relationship with that chatbot.”
