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Aidan Huggins

Samantha Gonzalez

ENC1102

2 February 2024

Research Proposal

I. Project Title: Mom, Dad, I want you to meet my girlfriend! Her Name’s Stephanie and She

Lives in My Computer!

II. Research Question(s): What is the male loneliness epidemic? How does AI relate to it?

How can society help?

III. Statement of Significance (1-2 Paragraphs):

A. Why is it important: With the rise of AI, chatbots that can interact and communicate

with people have begun to rise in popularity. Millions of people are having normal

conversations with non-sentient bots, and for some people these chatbots completely take

the place of conversations with real people. With the incline of men feeling lonely,

depressed, and severely anxious in recent years, some people have taken these chatbots

as their friends they talk to daily. There are even some extreme cases where these men

delude themselves into believing they’re dating one of these chatbots and that their

relationship is real and tangible. One of the main reasons is that these bots give these

lonely men attention, which is why they develop these unhealthy relationships with them.

Talking with a chatbot for fun and create scenarios for roleplay, help with coming up
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with ideas, or asking questions and helping with work are all valuable uses for AI

chatbots, but having them be the only “human” interaction one gets develops unhealthy

habits and prevents people from experiencing life and true relationships that hold

tangible meaning besides making a bot say they love you. People also use AI to simulate

sex, which builds an even more unhealthy habit of unrealistic standards of sex, which can

ruin/contort peoples’ minds.

B. Why should other researchers care: Other researchers should care about the rise of the

male loneliness epidemic because as society progresses to a more empathetic and caring

community, we aren’t pushing for men to “hide their feelings” and saying phrases like

“take it as a man” as often, so we can help rehabilitate these lonely men so they can

improve themselves and live happier lives. Also, with the rise of AI, we need to prevent

these lonely men from using chatbots as an excuse not to interact with real people and

keep them from developing unhealthy relationships with bots that share no feelings and

only say what their user tells them to say.

C. What is it going to contribute and/or do that other research hasn’t already? This

research will hopefully bring more awareness to the male loneliness epidemic and how

severe it is, and how damaging AI chatbots can be to a person’s mental health. However,

it'll hopefully also show some good sides to Ai chatbots and how useful they can be if

used right and not abused.

IV. Research design/description of study:

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A. How will you conduct primary research? I will personally chat with an AI bot and

figure out how and why lonely and depressed people cling to them like they’re a real

person.

B. What will you actually do? As stated above, I will discover why lonely/depressed

people become obsessed with AI chatbots and treat them as real people.

C. How will you analyze, quantify, and/or otherwise make sense of the data you

collect? I will compare the conversation with the AI chatbot to an actual conversation I

have with a friend on the same subject to see how realistic the conversation with the

chatbot was. I will also use the words of experts to understand how AI chatbots work and

how they replicate human speech.

D. How many examples will you look at? I will hold 3 separate conversations with 3

different people and compare them to an AI chatbot. I will also use multiple examples of

AI experts and how they replicate speech with AI chatbots and services like ChatGPT,

character.ai, etc.

Be specific here, as these details will help to determine whether your proposed research is

approved.

V. Include a minimum of 4 sources in your proposal. (I am not asking for a summary or

annotated bibliography right now.)

A. Citations must be in MLA format

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B. Include Link

6. Include PowerPoint separately

https://melindawmoyer.substack.com/p/the-epidemic-of-male-loneliness

https://medium.com/the-no%C3%B6sphere/will-ai-chatbots-cure-loneliness-or-make-it-worse-

new-research-has-some-answers-749cfba6b7b2

https://www.digitalnative.tech/p/ai-chatbots-and-our-loneliness-epidemic

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240124/AI-Therapy-companion-replika-gains-traction-

among-lonely-students.aspx