Oct 2, 2025 05:06 PM
https://psyche.co/ideas/for-young-people...d-we-worry
EXCERPT: At first, I assumed they were just casually using AI tools to summarise readings, outline syllabi and for other pragmatic tasks. But, increasingly, I’m seeing something else entirely. Tools like ChatGPT are also becoming emotional companions for the young adults I know: helping them write difficult messages, reframe their thoughts, even process grief. It seems that AI is becoming an active participant in the interior lives of young people, rather than just a productivity shortcut.
Though it might be tempting to dismiss this as a passing trend, the speed and ubiquity of AI adoption is unparalleled, and students often act as cultural pioneers. In my experience, older adults tend to see AI strictly as a tool – something to help draft emails or automate routine tasks. Students’ adoption of AI into their daily lives feels more natural. Its involvement in the ways they juggle identity, intimacy, ambition and uncertainty might be an early glimpse of what most people’s relationships with these tools will look like in the years to come.
Take Pranav, a Harvard junior who’s been coding since childhood. For him, AI began as a curiosity. It soon became a companion. He started with ChatGPT to study for classes, but now uses a stack of tools – Cursor, Windsurf, V0 – to prototype apps and test ideas. ‘It’s like having an intern,’ he says. ‘You don’t fully trust it, but it gets things done – if you keep an eye on it.’
His description of AI as an intern, albeit said jokingly, implies something like a working relationship tinged with ambivalence. He mentions he’s cautious of overreliance, of letting AI do too much thinking for him. ‘You can’t let your critical thinking atrophy,’ he says. And yet, he uses these tools every day. They’ve become part of how he learns, builds, reasons.
There seems to be a kind of cohabitation with cognition here, where thinking no longer happens in solitude, but with an invisible second brain. ‘Sometimes I already know the answer,’ Pranav says. ‘But it helps to see it reflected back.’ He still reads every line of AI-generated code. He still decides what to keep, what to discard. But the ideas arrive faster now. The feedback is instant. What was once a solitary problem-solving process is now a dialogue – an ever-unfolding partnership.
When people begin to personify their tools – when they describe them as interns or collaborators – it signals more than utility. Pranav isn’t just using AI. He’s learning how to live and think alongside it... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: At first, I assumed they were just casually using AI tools to summarise readings, outline syllabi and for other pragmatic tasks. But, increasingly, I’m seeing something else entirely. Tools like ChatGPT are also becoming emotional companions for the young adults I know: helping them write difficult messages, reframe their thoughts, even process grief. It seems that AI is becoming an active participant in the interior lives of young people, rather than just a productivity shortcut.
Though it might be tempting to dismiss this as a passing trend, the speed and ubiquity of AI adoption is unparalleled, and students often act as cultural pioneers. In my experience, older adults tend to see AI strictly as a tool – something to help draft emails or automate routine tasks. Students’ adoption of AI into their daily lives feels more natural. Its involvement in the ways they juggle identity, intimacy, ambition and uncertainty might be an early glimpse of what most people’s relationships with these tools will look like in the years to come.
Take Pranav, a Harvard junior who’s been coding since childhood. For him, AI began as a curiosity. It soon became a companion. He started with ChatGPT to study for classes, but now uses a stack of tools – Cursor, Windsurf, V0 – to prototype apps and test ideas. ‘It’s like having an intern,’ he says. ‘You don’t fully trust it, but it gets things done – if you keep an eye on it.’
His description of AI as an intern, albeit said jokingly, implies something like a working relationship tinged with ambivalence. He mentions he’s cautious of overreliance, of letting AI do too much thinking for him. ‘You can’t let your critical thinking atrophy,’ he says. And yet, he uses these tools every day. They’ve become part of how he learns, builds, reasons.
There seems to be a kind of cohabitation with cognition here, where thinking no longer happens in solitude, but with an invisible second brain. ‘Sometimes I already know the answer,’ Pranav says. ‘But it helps to see it reflected back.’ He still reads every line of AI-generated code. He still decides what to keep, what to discard. But the ideas arrive faster now. The feedback is instant. What was once a solitary problem-solving process is now a dialogue – an ever-unfolding partnership.
When people begin to personify their tools – when they describe them as interns or collaborators – it signals more than utility. Pranav isn’t just using AI. He’s learning how to live and think alongside it... (MORE - missing details)
