Elon’s Imagining the Digital Future Center and the Elon University Poll have collaborated on a survey of U.S. adults to capture the emergence of a new social phenomenon: the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems as social companions.
The survey shows that 27% of internet-using U.S. adults have social interactions with artificial intelligence large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot. These AI users have built bonds of connection, confidence and trust with LLMs and social bots.
We call the people who have used LLMs for social, emotional and personal purposes “AI companion users” and surveyed a representative sample of 1,000 in May 2026 to discover how they use their social bots, the nature of their relationships with the bots and the impact of their encounters.
Read the full report here.