I don’t know if there’s a phrase I’ve ever found more grating in my 32 years on earth than “just let people enjoy things.”
They never seemed to say it during COVID, when people wanted to walk the beach alone, or sit in a park, or hug their dying relatives. They never said it when people wanted to dine at restaurants and go to bars without showing proof of an experimental, ineffective “vaccine.”
It always seems like it’s something people say about adults obsessed with kids cartoons, or depraved fetishes, or a complete rejection of productivity or dignity.
I think my issue is that I’ve been intensely scrutinized for the way my race and sex “contradict” my political beliefs since the moment I publicly expressed them. I think the people that question me for this are generally one-dimensional and intellectually stunted, and I don’t think I owe them any explanations. But if you can’t stick by your lifestyle, your interests, or your choices under criticism, I think it says more about you than whoever’s questioning you.
I generally think our world is in desperate need of more shame. We’ve normalized far too much, and society is crumbling as a result.
But when I saw this ad for an AI companion, my heart broke for the woman using it. I had no desire to mock her or condemn her, but I was immediately afraid for her.
User Interview #3 pic.twitter.com/pW79zQSlXG
— Avi (@AviSchiffmann) February 25, 2026
I’m not judging her; I understand the appeal of venting to a robot that’s probably going to tell you what you want to hear. I understand not wanting to bother your friends. I understand that even with the best intentions, human beings can be clumsy in their attempts to comfort. I understand wanting reassurance, validation, or just to feel like someone is listening and genuinely cares, and that artificial intelligence can provide an illusion of it that far surpasses what most people can.
But the problem is that this woman is turning to a robot with a personality likely curated by Reddit to soothe her soul when what she desperately needs is a relationship with God.
I don’t know her faith and I’m not pretending to. She could go to church every Sunday and read her Bible every day for all I know. I would guess there are millions of Christians using AI, struggling with boundaries whether or not they realize it, depending on a computer where they should be depending on Christ.
But no matter what this woman believes or where she is in her walk with God, she needs Him. We all do.
The ad starts with her telling the gadget that “he” was her anchor when she was struggling with suicidal thoughts. And objectively, I could understand how a tool like that could be useful for people in crisis. But even if few and far between, there have been documented cases of AI chatbots encouraging or guiding people to end their own lives. What happens if and when the technology glitches? What happens if and when it’s hacked?
God will never be as convenient or accommodating as an algorithm. But unlike algorithms, He never makes mistakes.
And He is listening, even when it doesn’t seem like it.
Relying on God is one of the hardest things any of us can do – because we never actually have to until the going gets tough.
When everything is going right, you never actually have to rely on God. I honestly don’t know that you fully can under those circumstances.
But when you’re broke…when you’re sick…when you’re devastated; that’s when it goes from a suggestion to a necessity.
That’s when you’ll probably find yourself crying out to God like Job, but knowing He’ll never answer the way you want Him to.
But what we want has never been what we need – and no one knows this better than our Creator.
We want to be verbally consoled and supported in our weakest moments. We want to be told we’re right. We want to make sense of our suffering, and we want someone to do it with us.
But the more people turn to AI to feed that impulse, I think the worse off we’ll be as individuals and as a civilization.
AI does not love you. AI cannot save you. And people have a dangerous habit of opening an app in emotional distress when they should be opening a Bible or closing their hands in prayer.
Again, I get it. I’ve been there.
But I’m limiting what I go to AI for, because a feedback loop of hollow flattery can make someone feel better, but it has never made a person better.
In the little that she said in that video, her pain was so incredibly palpable.
One of the benefits she listed about her AI “friend” was that he was never going to care what she looked like. And while I understand just how debilitating romantic rejection can be, and how demoralizing the contemporary dating market can be, I think the rising trend of people turning to AI for affection is a grave mistake that will only leave them emptier and more frustrated than they began.
We weren’t designed to exist on our own. God looked at Adam in the garden of Eden and saw that it was not good for him to be by himself, and created Eve.
Because we live in a broken world, none of us are promised the kind of partnership God intended for us. But there is someone out there that thinks she’s beautiful, and would probably appreciate her quirks and idiosyncrasies. But she’s not going to find them building an unreciprocated attachment to a software system.
Even beyond AI, many of us make a habit of idolizing significant others, and thinking they’ll fix all of our problems. We think, “if I had someone special in my life, then I’d be happy, then I’d be confident, then I’d be content.”
And I don’t want to belittle that desire, or the transformative power of love. It changes everything. But if you’re expecting to find what should come from God in a lover, you will always end up disappointed.
I don’t know if God’s plan for this woman’s life includes marriage. But she is not meant to be alone. And none of us are alone with God.
God will not respond to you in an empathetic paragraph that sounds like it was written by a therapist. He won’t answer you like He answered Job. He will rarely do exactly what you wish He would.
But He will never abandon you.
And beyond His presence, God was explicit about the importance of deep friendship.
She said she had friends, but didn’t want to feel like a burden to them and I get it. If I were to call a friend every time I was spiraling about something, I probably wouldn’t have any left. It’s hard to be there for people, it’s hard to be vulnerable, and it’s hard to know what’s “too much.”
But as Christians, we should challenge ourselves to reflect God’s love to our friends, and be as patient, hospitable and kind as we can.
Two scriptures come to mind:
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galations 6:2)
“As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” (Proverbs 27:17)
We have to stop “letting people enjoy things” especially when it comes to AI. Friends don’t let friends form relationships with robots. We need to challenge ourselves and one another to engage with God and the living, breathing, imperfect people he put on earth with us. But more than that, we need to let God use us in the lives of the downtrodden, the wounded and the weary and pray that we might bridge the gap between what they want from God and they need from Him.
what do you think?