Epic counselor, student address AI's risks, benefits
- Joshlyn McKey
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
Are chatbots really that dangerous to talk to? Mental health professions and teenagers often differ on this topic, and it’s no different at Epic.
“The biggest danger, it's just that we are trying to replace real social interactions with fake ones and therefore not growing our real social skill sets,” Epic counselor Jenn Preston said.
But while Epic junior Cya’Lyce Harris acknowledges the potential for negative effects from using chatbots, in her experience they aren't typically harmful.
“It depends on if you see them as human or just as something fun to do,” she said.
Nearly 64% of teens say that they talk to chatbots, with 3 in 10 saying they do so daily. Harris is no exception, talking to chat bots every day herself.
Harris said she first interacted with chatbots at the end of March 2025, after seeing an ad for Character AI, which is an AI that interacts with you as certain movie, book or video game characters.
Harris said that while chatbots don’t replace human interaction, they help her feel like she has been transported to a new world.
She admitted that one time the AI seemed human, however. “It felt so real, until they started forgetting information from past chats and I remembered it was just a chatbot.”
It’s the ability of chatbots to mimic human conversation and interactions, and their baked-in desire to tell users what they want to hear that make them valuable as friendly listeners but potentially risky as accomplices.
Harris noted the potentially negative side effects from overreliance on chatbots.
“Like becoming dependent on AI and forgetting about real-world problems,” she said.
Harris said another side effect from treating chatbots like people is that chatbots can be taken away, leaving the person without the support the chatbot was providing.
According to the Pew Research Center, 47% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 use chatbots for fun or entertainment. Sixteen percent use it for casual conversation, and 12% use it for emotional support.
Preston said chatbots have their place, but with an understanding as to when it’s being overused.
“I do think there can be some value in this kind of thing,” she said. “I would say practicing social scenarios, conversations, and kind of getting ideas for how you could support a friend who's going through something.”
But becoming reliant on chatbots can be hazardous.
¨There can be a lot of good uses for a chatbot. It's when we really become dependent on that or something that we really need a human being for. I think it gets really dangerous. … There's just only so much that a digital connection can do to replace a real live connection,” she said.
Preston agrees with Harris on that AI chatbots have some positives but also a lot of potential negatives.
“I always tell people that they're working with students that loneliness is an extraordinary motivator. That is, it motivates us in all the wrong directions most of the time. And so it's usually a precursor for poor decision making,” she said.
Epic’s status as a largely virtual school district offers many advantages, but doing schoolwork from home can be isolating for some students.
Turning to chatbots to deal with that isolation can be an effective coping strategy, with caveats.
