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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – For a growing number of teenagers, there’s a new place to go when something’s wrong.
Generative and interactive artificial intelligence is making its presence felt across society, and experts now say they’re worried about its expanding presence in the lives of overly trusting teens.
At the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Kansas City, program director Akilah Cherry spends time educating local teenagers on building relationships, critical thinking — and in an ever-present technologically based world — digital literacy.
“Critical thinking skills are important, especially when it comes to AI,” Cherry said. “Because I think the instant gratification that (AI) brings for answers that the kids are seeking — and how fast it comes — it can be a problem.”
The “Teen Club,” which Cherry leads, meets at the Thornberry Unit of the Boys and Girls Club of Kansas City. As they meet, for some of the teens, the most honest conversation of the day isn’t with each other. Instead, it’s with a chatbot.
“I used AI to actually get advice on a situation,” said Zoei, a 17-year-old. “I didn’t really know how to go about saying something.”
Zoei’s not alone. A new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association found nearly 1 out of every 5 young people used AI for mental health advice last year. That figure is up nearly 50% from the year prior.
JAMA says approximately 70% of adolescents who have tried an AI companion app use them at least monthly, and half report regular use.
“While many adolescents use generative AI for instrumental purposes — like homework help, a concern is the subset of the population engaging with AI as a relational partner,” JAMA’s study reads.
Interactive AI, including applications that generate humanlike text and influence young people’s perceptions and behaviors, inspired a new health advisory from the American Psychological Association. The latest notice expands on a previous advisory regarding social media use in teenagers.
“People will depend on AI more now than another person or like a family member or a friend,” 14-year-old Lacount said.
Headquartered in Olathe, Kansas, Camber Children’s Mental Health is seeing a rise in AI cases. Bethany Nold is a program development manager and says AI’s stranglehold on some youth is concerning.
“When it becomes your sole confidant, your sole emotional value validation or your sole advice giver, that’s the problem,” Nold said.
Nold said AI has to be handled responsibly as adults implement and use it, with trickle-down use by youth.
“So we can’t approach this with an extinction mindset,” she said, “because it’s not going to go away.”
With AI being built to please, Nold said, it’s not designed to help teens cope, stay motivated, or connect.
“[Kids] are longing for social interactions and they’re getting a taste of that through this and it’s satiating them enough that they’re not being curious enough to seek outside of that,” Nold says.
Nold continued, describing when AI use is problematic: “When your knee-jerk reaction isn’t to communicate with somebody directly, but just to communicate with AI in some capacity.”
As AI expands, Nold says it can be both addictive and lead to emotional distress for growing youth. Thus, as it grows, so too does the risk to teen mental health.
“They’ve never known unplugged,” Nold says, “so we can’t make it go away. We have to teach them to use it safely.”
At the Boys and Girls Club, the lesson starts at the door. Cherry says they teach youth the old-fashioned way about building interpersonal relationships.
“By building relationships, being able to talk to trusting, caring adults, being able to communicate and understand that technology is here to help them,” Cherry said.
Cherry calls the work a “whole child” approach, building kids up in mind, body and character.
“They’re going to need those tools and skillsets no matter what they encounter,” Cherry said. “Technology is changing every day, but we want them to always be able to look back and say, ‘I can go talk to this person,’ or ‘I can sit down with my friends who will give me an honest perspective on what’s right or wrong.’ Those critical skills are what we work to develop here at the Boys and Girls club.”
It seems the lesson is sinking in.
“When you’re using AI, you’re not truly using your brain,” said 15-year-old Kahlil, who participates in the ‘Teen Club.’
“AI is not something you should depend on for the solution to all your problems,” said 13-year-old Joshua. “Sometimes critical thinking comes with your problems. AI can’t just answer it for you.”
In dealing with the unknown of a situation with friends, Zoei says she realized the AI chatbot she was dealing with didn’t actually know her.
“It was telling me that I was better off not having such a big social group,” she recalled. “And I’m such a social person. I love being around people. I love my friends.
Zoei continued: “So I was like, this robot knows nothing about me. It doesn’t know my dynamics with people. It doesn’t know how long I’ve been friends with others. It’s not a reliable, comforting source. That’s when I was like, ‘OK, this is a one-and-done. Thank you for advice.’”
While these teens, they know they have friends in each other.
“I know especially with people our age, we’ve been finding it harder to open up,” Zoei says. “If you need a genuine, pure humanlike connection, I’m there.”
“My best friend Lacount, if he was to come to me with something serious,” Joshua said, “I would give him real answers. Real advice.”
Not an AI response.
“I know how he acts,” Joshua said. “I know how [Lacount] responds.”
Experts say conversations with teenagers should be initiated to see how they’re using AI. According to the JAMA study, 63.3% of participants who used an AI chatbot for mental health advice did not disclose their use of the program to anyone.
That makes showing teens how to use AI as a tool, not an emotional crutch, key to keeping them talking. Because conversations with a parent or guardian is something no chatbot can replace.
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